Echo
by shadowtheo
Summary: Dizzy sequel. Vince begins having nightmares, and the gang readily go on the Zooniverse's annual away trip to a country mansion, that Vince finds scarily familiar. But with emotions and fears running high, how much is reality, and how much is illusion.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Dizzy sequel, Vince begins having nightmares of his past, and the gang readily go on the Zooniverse's annual away trip to a country mansion, that Vince finds scarily familiar. But with emotions and fears running high, how much of what happens is reality, and how much is an illusion. Warning: disturbing/dark themes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Echo: 1 Dreaming Reality.

A couple of months after the defeat of Bainbridge, Howard was woken in the middle of the night for the third time this week.

Howard jumped out of bed as he recognized the thrashing, whimpering noises coming from Vince's room. The jazz maverick sprinted to his friend, hoping to get to him in time.

The first time this had happened, a couple of weeks ago, Vince had ran to him scared, having not had a nightmare for years. Howard had comforted him, but Vince wouldn't say what he had dreamed of. Howard wasn't even sure if Vince knew himself, to panicked by the experience to remember.

The second time Howard was awoken in the mornings to an unnaturally jumpy Vince. Once again he failed to get anything out of him, but could see how tired his friend was, and guessed he hadn't slept, along with the strange paranoia he held all day.

The third and fourth times were soon after this, and Howard awoke to muffled thrashing, but couldn't get to his friend through the locked door, that once the thrashing stopped, Vince either couldn't (due to sleep), or wouldn't open to him.

The day after the fourth Howard convinced Vince to keep his door unlocked in case it happened again, and then Howard could wake him up from it.

The time after that Vince had tried to describe his nightmare to Howard as they both sat on the sofa, too afraid and worked up to sleep. The blur of images and glare of bright lights that Vince haltingly described could have been anything, and they both slept feeling even more confused and worked up then before.

The first time this week that it had happened, Vince had fallen back asleep with exhaustion after waking Howard with an actual scream. Sweaty and pale it almost looked like he was being drowned by the blanket. But he was sleeping peacefully, and Howard didn't have the heart to wake him.

The last time, Howard went to the room, only to find in the, incredibly short, time it took to get there Vince had woken up and ran to the bathroom, and locked it. Howard had spent a few minutes trying to both comfort and persuade the retching man to let him in, finally leaving tentatively as Vince first screamed and then begged Howard to go away. Vince had sounded so broken that he couldn't refuse, and in the morning he had already left to go to the newt house, returning sounding cheerful and untroubled.

So it was with a fair amount of desperation that Howard dashed into Vince's room that night, determined not to leave him alone to the nightmares.

Vince lay twisting and turning, gradually becoming trapped in the blankets and sheets, making whimpered, noncommittal noises. Howard sat on the bed and shook Vince gently; even the small movement seemed enough to wake him up.

With a gasp Vince sat up, panting and wide eyed, he nearly bolted from Howard before actually seeing who it was.

"Oh, Howard." Hw mumbled, looking down at the bed covers and shaking. It was awhile before Howard recognized the small shuddering movements and suppressed sobs.

"Its okay Vince, its over now." He coaxed gently, pulling him into an embrace. The threatening tears never fell, but the thin frame continued to shiver periodically. Howard wasn't sure what to say, but for now Vince seemed content with just his company.

Eventually even the shudders subsided; Vince slowly untangled himself from the blankets and turned to look at Howard.

"Thanks." He muttered sheepishly.

"Its alright, what are friends for eh?" Howard replied, glad when a small smile escaped Vince. After a while Howard dared the next question.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Vince visibly tensed and looked at his hands.

"I, it was pretty fuzzy." Howard could hear the nerves in his voice; it did nothing to soothe his own anxiety.

"Vince?" He questioned carefully.

"I saw the neon lights. I remembered them." Vince muttered, more to himself.

"You mean the ones in Bainbridge's house?" Howard asked, now plain confused.

"No." Vince insisted, turning to look at him earnestly before turning back to his hands.

"The ones in my old room." Howard couldn't place the emotion in the smaller man's voice, so he frowned.

"Do you mean where you lived before you went to Bainbridge?" Howard had never really thought of this concept before.

"Yeah." Vince turned back to him, but kept his eyes on some fixed point in the room.

"How long did you live with Bainbridge?" Howard asked softly, for the first time really wondering the answer.

"I don't really know, maybe a year? Maybe more?" Vince frowned himself. "It was hard to keep track of time there."

He and Vince shared a complatitive silence. Howard tried to think how he felt about the revelation. On one hand, it was strange to know how long Vince had been there, on another, it was strange to think of him having lived anywhere else. Strange to think of the place where he lived when he had turned into the slightly disturbed person he was. Strange to think of the people who made him this way. Strange to think of his parents. How much did Vince even remember himself?

Howard was surprised when he saw the sky beginning to lighten. Knowing they'd never manage to fall asleep again now, Howard decided on a different tact.

"Want to go give the tortoise its bath?" Vince smiled at him, and they got up to begun the days work at the truly obscene hour of three, might as well not have bothered with sleep.

And so begun their next adventure, by the end of it, Howard would be wishing they'd both gotten those extra hours of sleep. They could have used them.

It was about midday in the zoo when fossil called a meeting. Wearily the entire zoo staff turned up, including Naboo, and for some reason Bollo, though no one seemed to mind.

The four friends stood next to each other, staring impatiently at their slightly retarded boss.

"Now, as I'm sure you're all aware." Fossil begun seriously, before switching to deranged hyperness. "The Zooniverse annual holiday is starting tonight, and you all have to go!"

"We've never had an annual trip before!" Piped up someone.

"Yeah and why tonight?" Someone else complained.

"Zip it!" Fossil commanded, and they obeyed, though silently swearing that they'd have him if he didn't control their jobs.

"Now we're all going and we're going to have a happy Zooniverse holiday! You got that! So pack your bags, that means you too Moon!" Eventually everyone grumbled and returned to their jobs, resigned to their fate.

"Its ridiculous, demanding us like that!" Howard complained.

"Why, you got something better to do?" Naboo smirked; Howard scowled and was about to announce he wouldn't be going, when Vince spoke.

"Wow! Howard I've never been on a holiday!" Howard looked at the pure joy on Vince's face and found he didn't have the heart to let him down.

"Yeah Vince, should be great." He smiled, gaining Vince's famous dizzy grin, before he caught Naboo smirking, and hurried off to pack.

Maybe a holiday was just what they needed, a bit of rest and relaxation might even help with Vince's nightmares. Oh how wrong he was.

The Zoo's employees traveled deep into the wooded country on a minibus, somehow Bollo had managed to get onboard without anyone noticing.

Vince looked out the window; the scenery was calm if a bit ominous of a storm. Tall pine and fur trees reached across the sky, standing out somewhat morbidly against the sky.

As the bus passed over a bridge, Vince looked down to see sinisterly swirling inky water, a river hitting some rocks before plunging down several meters seamlessly until it hit a mist that Vince couldn't see through.

He had the most unsettling feeling of memories from there for some reason, although it could have been a dream.

However, as more familiar scenery passed by, Vince begun to have the unshakeable feeling that he had been there before. This was cemented when the dregs of fuzzy memories begun to emerge. Like when you're trying to remember what the programs you watched as a child were like.

He turned to see Howard dozing peacefully before turning back to the scenery. As small drops of rain begun hitting the window he saw the trees swaying in the wind. It was almost as if they were welcoming him back.

But to what, Vince didn't yet remember.

::Well the first installment, what did you think? Interested? Intrigued? I hope so anyway hehe, more soon hopefully.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Echo: 2 Mansions of Memories.

Howard woke up slowly, groaning at the crick in his neck. He turned to see Vince staring intently out the window, strangely tense and stiff.

"Vince?" He questioned.

"Huh, oh, hi Howard." Vince replied, turning to look at him before turning back, almost as though he hadn't fully registered it happening.

Howard stared at Vince, but was not given much time to dwell on his strange behaviour before the bus turned a corner and begun slowing down, signaling the arrival at their destination.

"Hey, we're here Vince! Your first holiday!" Howard announced happily, hoping to lure Vince out of his trance. It seemed to work, but they couldn't get a good look at what was outside before they got out of the bus. This was easier said then done, as most of the bags on the bus were Vince's, and had to be carried out by Bollo who didn't take anything at all.

As soon as they got out of the bus they all stopped dead and stared. A huge mansion rose in front of them from the sweeping driveway, there was no garden, simply a wall of trees where the forest begun. The building was several stories high and as wide as a football field, standing proudly amidst the heavy forest. It seemed to glare down at them as if daring them to enter.

Howard turned to Vince, keen on making some comment about compensation, but stopped when he saw the look on his face. Vince's face was a mix of discerning emotions, terror and confusion were the most prominent ones, but there was also a strange longing and hatred as he gazed at the stone.

"Vince?" He tried cautiously, gaining Naboo and Bollo's attention.

"He alright?" Naboo questioned in concern.

"I don't know, something must have set him off. Or spooked him." He added, casting a glance at the offending building.

"Vince? Time to go inside now." Bollo grunted, and tapped Vince on the back. He jumped slightly and went a bit wide-eyed, but managed to turn away from the house.

"Yeah, okay." Vince's voice was the high-pitched tone it went when he was scared or shocked. But he picked up a bag and walked towards the house with the rest of the zookeepers, although it was jerky, as if he were internally resisting it.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Bollo muttered.

Bollo was already following the stuttering figure; Naboo and Howard shared a glance before joining them, uneasy feelings catching up with them. Bollo was never wrong.

Upon entering the mansion the were met by a looming ancient looking entrance hall, and no one else save the zoo keepers and Fossil.

"Right, it says here the master of the house is away at the moment, but I've got the map to the rooms. Everyone follow me! Except you four, your in the other side of the house." With that Fossil left with the map and all the staff save Howard, Naboo, Bollo and Vince.

"Great, now how are we going to find our rooms?" Howard huffed in annoyance. He turned to the others only to see Naboo staring calculatingly at Vince, who was once again being followed faithfully by Bollo as he led the way up the crimson carpeted stairs opposite the ones Fossil took.

Without words they both followed. Vince led them up another flight of stairs and then down a corridor.

Vince's footsteps traced along the corridor as if in memory, not looking at the passing rooms until he came to one door.

"You can stay there." Vince announced dazedly, pushing the door open to reveal a huge bedroom. As the three entered they saw there was a large double bed and a sofa, there were two doors, one led to a bathroom and one to an adjoining bedroom, the other bedroom was the same as the first, with its own bedroom and a door to the corridor.

Howard was about to fully bask in the glory when he saw Vince disappearing into the corridor. Running after him much as he had the first time they met, he followed Vince to the end of the corridor, which was where the second room ended. He then turned and went through a mostly concealed door up a fully black-carpeted set of stairs.

The stairs were short and up them was a short corridor with one door at the end of it, and one in the sidewall. Vince headed right down the corridor and headed into the room.

Howard grabbed the door just in time to prevent Vince from closing it.

"Yeah Howard?" Vince asked, looking mostly normal for the first time in the mansion, although he seemed tired and stressed, and maybe a little pleading, although Howard didn't know why.

Peering beyond his friend Howard saw neon lights shining from around the small room, accompanied by several sets of fairy lights. The bed was large and high off the ground, having both a set of heavy deep blue curtains that shone in the light slightly, and a thin black satiny sheen of a curtain. Rugs and giant cushions adorned the floor, and in one corner was a giant toy penguin, about half the size of Vince. The walls were solidly mirrored, much like in Bainbridge's room, but they all seemed to have handles, so were actually wardrobes. One mirrored surface was slightly ajar to reveal a greenish bathroom.

Somewhere Howard felt something click, he turned to look at Vince, seeing him biting his lip and avoiding his gaze, looking worn out.

"Vince, in your dream, is this, are we in?" Howard stuttered uncertainly, somehow praying for Vince to say his was mistaken.

"Yeah, this is my old room, and my old house." He murmured, undistinguishable emotion thick in his voice.

The two looked at each other, trying to guess what the other was thinking. Howard was in shock; it all seemed so real now.

"I'll see you in the morning, yeah?" Vince prompted, partly wanting the insurance that, yes, he would see Howard soon.

"Yeah sure thing little man." Before Vince could shut the door he continued. "If you need me, for anything, just come get me okay." Howard's earnestly shone through, and he was rewarded by Vince's gratitude in a genuine smile before he nodded.

"Yeah, good night Howard." Vince said quietly.

"Good night Vince. Sleep well." He added after Vince closed the door, and headed back down to the room, only to find Bollo had stolen the bed from him.

Howard was not woken by Vince, but by Fossil.

"Get your ass up Moon! Its breakfast and were all needed in the dining room." Howard saw that Naboo and Bollo were both stood there as well, looking as if this was the absolute worst-case scenario in the morning.

Howard looked beyond Fossil standing in the doorway to see Vince standing behind him quietly.

"Come on Vincey, let's go get some nibbles. Mmmm, I _love_ nibbles." Fossil left down the hallway, Vince gave an apologetic sort of smile and followed him. Howard would have been angry, but he was still worried about Vince's weight, so was glad he'd at least be in a room with food. As if on queue Howard's stomach rumbled threateningly.

"Yes alright!" He threw out, Naboo and Bollo looking quite concerned for his mental health as he went to use the bathroom.

A good few minutes later found them all up and correctly dressed in the dinning hall. The polished wooden floor stretched out for ages in the room, facing large French doors that opened onto a balcony that looked to the forest. Tables covered the floor, and at the one side of the room was a table full of a wide selection of food.

Howard managed to find Vince at a table near the wall of the opposite side of the room. Whilst Naboo and Bollo went to collect food for them all Howard sat opposite Vince.

Howard was shocked at Vince's appearance, deep shadows lined his eyes, which looked slightly dull even in the light room, his hair was on the disheveled side of ruffled and he seemed to react slower then usual.

"Vince? Did you sleep at all last night?" Howard asked as the man finally realized his presence.

"Not really. It's all a bit weird, you know?" Vince said quietly, staring into the very sugary tea he was holding. Howard didn't know, he could only imagine how strange, and disturbing this must be for Vince. But despite the tiredness, Vince didn't seem afraid.

"Well, don't worry little man, it's only for a week." Howard smiled, and Vince grinned dizzily in return. Pleased with Vince's now lighter attitude, Howard was glad to see Naboo and Bollo turn up, laden with food.

"Hey." Howard begun, the thought only just occurring to him. "If this is a place for people to go on holiday, where's all the staff? Surely somewhere this big would have them?" He questioned, Naboo and Bollo looked equally confused.

"We never really had any, Dad didn't like 'em." Vince looked appalled at what he had just let slip, covering his mouth wide-eyed. Naboo stared at Vince, equally shocked at the revelation; Howard was shocked that Vince had just said something like that off the cuff as it were.

"Bollo knew it. House smells like Vince." The gorilla grunted, and they all turned to look at him before gradually returning to their food thoughtfully.

As they gradually worked their way through breakfast, Howard saw Vince pushing his food around the plate in a way he hadn't seen him do for weeks.

Gradually Howard and Naboo became aware of Vince becoming increasingly agitated, they shared a few glances at each telltale sign from their friend. Vince would begin by becoming tense, his hand shaking even as it tightly grasped something, then he would fiddle and look around at everything and nothing, after these his breathing would become just slightly erratic as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Vince?" Naboo questioned as he suddenly flinched at a clock chiming. When he turned to look at them Vince's eyes were slightly wide, the pupils dilated. It was then that Howard noticed Bollo was reacting to Vince's tension, he had given his back slightly to the thin shiny person much like a guard, and his eyes were flicking constantly around the room.

For some reason the thought of Bollo being protective of Vince only really occurred to him.

"Alrighty you pigs." Fossil announced suddenly, standing in the middle of the room and trying to look at all the twenty keepers at the same time.

"We've got a special guest for you now." Vince pushed his chair back from the table violently, eyeing the door with increasing panic. "The owner of this place is gonna be back right now." Vince slowly stood up and plastered himself to the wall. "So yous all better behave! That means you Moon!"

For once Howard didn't listen to Fossil as he mentioned him, as the large doors to the room slowly swung open, Vince was practically hyperventilating.

"Presenting, the grand-" The doors were fully open now, and Vince was shaking almost painfully hard.

"-The one and only-" Vince's knees sagged slightly. "-The indescribable-" Bollo placed himself directly between Vince and the door as Naboo and Howard also stood up.

"-Jacques Noir!" Fossil finished, the zookeepers clapped, and into the room stepped a tall man with sandy brown hair and an impressively French moustache, wearing a sweeping jacket and black boots over light trousers.

Vince stood stock still, not breathing, as the man's gaze swept the room piercingly, slowly but surely, it came to rest on them. The two pairs of eyes locked, the tall man smiled and stepped towards them.

As the man got a couple of steps closer his smile turned into a frown and he begun to move faster, until he all but ran. It was only then that Vince's frozen friends noticed him slowly sliding to the floor, Bollo turned to him only to be forced out the way by the man.

With amazing agility he caught Vince just as his legs gave out, cradling the limp figure gently before his head hit the floor. Vince's eyes stayed open only a moment longer, his mouth opening to try and form words before the blue orbs rolled back and he lay still.

"Do excuse my interference, but it appears my son has just fainted. So, to whom do I owe the pleasure of taking care of him so evidently well?" Howard, Naboo, Bollo, Fossil and all the zoo staff stood and stared at the scene whilst the man gazed around them calculatingly before turning back to Vince.

::Yay! I'm sure it was pretty obvious who the owner of the house would be but there you go! Sorry that not much happened, but the next one should be up soon. Please tell me what you think!

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Sorry it was a wait, hope you enjoy.

Echo: 3 Butterfly Steps.

Howard gaped as Vince's father gently brushed his fringe away from his eyes, pressed his hand to his cheeks and forehead and checked his pulse at his neck. It was Fossil who recovered first.

"All of you back to your rooms! We'll get to the day's activities later." The keepers scuttled off in shock and Fossil approached the group. "Is he alright?" He asked in normal Fossil idiocy.

"Vince will be fine." Jacques announced, still gazing critically at Vince. "Vince was always delicate, he shouldn't over-exert himself."

Tearing his gaze away the man turned to Howard and Naboo, who were still gaping stupidly.

"I am sorry for my earlier accusation, its just that I haven't seen Vince in years, and to see him like this, well." He trailed off, after a few seconds he pulled a small silver bottle from a pocket.

"What's that?" Howard questioned suspiciously, remembering to talk.

"Smelling salts, this is no way to catch up on sleep." He replied before un-stopping the bottle and waving it under Vince's nose. Howard couldn't help but think this man was trapped in an era even more then he was, not that Howard was trapped in an era, oh no sir!

Vince gagged softly and coughed as he came to, Jacques helped him sit up slightly and coaxed him to take deep breaths. As Vince became more aware of his surroundings he looked up, expecting to see Howard, and soon remembered the reason for his collapse.

"Ah!" He yelped, scrambling away and to his feet, nearly falling over but grabbing a chair just in time. He leaned over breathing heavily as his head swam from the movement.

Bollo took this as his queue, and barged past the tall man to get to Vince. The gorilla grabbed Vince and pulled him into the safety of his arms, where Vince gasped and held his head in dizziness, leaning heavily on the ape.

"Sorry." Came an incredibly small voice from Vince.

"It's alright, lets get you to bed shall we?" Howard was shocked by the genuine care and concern he could detect, he had been expecting some kind of monster, but surely Vince's reaction to his own father indicated something was amiss. Now his head hurt too. He looked to see that Naboo was still looking shocked, and also quite pale.

'Something isn't quite right here.' Howard Moon deduced.

"If we take him to our room then we can make sure he sleeps alright." Howard suggested, he couldn't see Jacques' face, but he nodded either way.

"Yes, that's very kind of you. Seems Vince has made some good friends." Howard couldn't detect the emotions in his voice, but was more concerned with getting Vince upstairs.

Bollo gently laid the tired and trembling Vince on the large bed, Howard stood with Jacques and Fossil as Naboo went straight to Vince, blocking him from the three's view.

Fossil stood back in the corridor, staring with wide eyes like some sort of deranged fish as the other two talked.

"I must go oversee the mornings activities, but thank you for looking after Vince. If you need me, here's my mobile number." Howard had to fight off the shock that this man even had a mobile phone, and nodded what he hopped was reassuringly.

"Its no problem, we're happy to take care of him. I'll call you if anything happens." He assured, thinking it would be the last thing he would do. After a few pleasantries they both left, and Howard closed and locked the door.

He returned to the bed to see Vince lying covering his face with his hands as he breathed harshly, Naboo gently had a hand on this shoulder. Concern and sadness were evident on the shaman's face as Vince breathed sufferingly, Bollo stood protectively next to him.

"What's going on?" He questioned the room in general before adding. "Vince?"

"I'm sorry Howard, don't know what came over me." Vince said tiredly, removing his hands from a pale face. Howard stared at his confusing friend; he decided to change tack to direct questions.

"Vince, what was your childhood like?" He asked cautiously.

"Umm, average?" Vince answered equally carefully.

"Vince! You ever heard of abuse! You think maybe it occurs here?" Howard was shocked by Naboo's anger as he spoke, seeing the fury in his eyes.

"It wasn't that bad!" Vince protested, seeing the three unconvinced looks. "It _wasn't_!" He insisted.

"I saw it Vince I know what happened!" Naboo replied angrily, then seeing three confused looks of his own added. "I was having visions of what Vince was seeing just as his dad came in."

"I wasn't abused!" Vince nearly yelled.

"What did he do to you Vince? Just tell us!" Howard pleaded desperately, he couldn't stand the thought of the sweet and happy Vince being traumatized, but it was even worse not knowing what had happened.

"Nothing!" Vince yelped, leaping off the bed to stand in the middle of the room.

"Vince please." He tried again.

"They both know that he treated you bad now, you might as well confess." Naboo reasoned. Howard's heart nearly broke at Vince's scared and panicked look, his eyes darting around and shinning on the verge of tears as he breathed harshly.

"Why can't you just tell them if you know about it?" Vince half pleaded the shaman, and Howard saw Naboo's eyes soften sadly.

"It wont go away like that, you've got to admit it yourself." He answered softly.

"Well it wont go away now will it! Because now I'm trapped here with him!" Vince finally shouted, wrapping his arms around himself as he shook on the verge of angry tears.

"I want to go back to the zoo, I hate it here." Vince sobbed out quietly; Howard moved close and wrapped him into a hug.

"We can't go back right now, but we wont just let him have you. But Vince you've got to help us! If we don't know what he did then we can't prevent anything." Howard reasoned in a soft tone, looking over to the nodding Naboo and tense Bollo. Several shakes later Vince responded quietly, the fear in his voice evident.

"Okay, I'll try Howard, but I don't remember everything clearly." The trembling increased and Howard held him closer.

"That's okay little man, just do what you can."

A couple of minutes later the four of them were sitting comfortably on the giant bed, Vince for once had shrugged off contact whilst he prepared to recount what he could remember, which at that stage was as much as Naboo had seen. After several minutes of silence Naboo spoke.

"If I say what I saw then why don't you talk us through it." Vince gave a small smile to the shaman, although it looked more like a grimace.

"Alright, well the first thing I saw was you at about seven or eight all scratched and bloody, whilst he just stood over you." Naboo said calmly directly o Vince, who was fiddling with the blankets. As he heard the memory Vince seemed to talk through it just out of habit for explaining what he did. Which he had to do quite a lot, like when Howard had caught him dressing up a hedgehog to be Mick Jagger.

"Well, I'd just been found by him after living in the forest with Brian Ferry." The three nodded, they knew about his time in the forest. "And I got bored one day so I tried to get outside by the window in the room."

"Wait, but I didn't see any-" Howard was cut off by Naboo's glare from mentioning the lack of a window in Vince's room.

"But soon as I opened the window it shattered all over me, nasty little bugger." Vince trailed off for a moment of hatred against the window. "Dad came in and said that he'd done that in case I tried to escape. I had a go at him for it so he fixed a mirror over the window and shut me in my room till I said sorry."

"So then, that explains..." Naboo asked.

"Yeah, after that you probably saw me having a few right fits." Vince added, speaking as if the fits were uncalled for.

"Vince he left you bleeding and hurt for days!" Naboo stormed. "Then came back and told you to shut up! He nearly drowned you in the bath cleaning you up!"

"That wasn't his fault I was afraid of the water! Made a right mess, he said so! But he forgave me for it!" Howard now saw how crucial that first encounter must have been, he could picture Vince scared and hurt in the large room. After Naboo took a deep breath to calm himself he continued.

"The next time I saw you were much thinner."

"Yeah, I wouldn't eat proper for a while, I got quite sick as a nipper." This memory didn't seem to affect Vince that much. To Howard however, who had developed a slight obsession with Vince eating properly, it was very disturbing that he'd been to scared to eat properly. It was also at this time that Howard and Naboo both seemed to realize that rather then outright just being in denial of these events, Vince seemed to have suppressed certain elements of the memories.

"Alright, after that there were loads of clothes in your room."

"Yeah... I never really knew why he did that." He frowned puzzled. "But it was really cool!" Vince said the last part enthusiastically.

"And I didn't really understand the ones following that." The three noticed as Vince curled up slightly, fiddling again with the sheets, focusing on them and frowning.

"Yeah, well, he would ignore me unless I wore the nice new clothes he got, and if I got it wrong he'd smack me and send me to try again, 'specially if people were coming over."

"He didn't smack you Vince, he properly chased and whacked you! I saw him throw things at you!" Naboo corrected furiously.

"Yeah but then when I looked all good he'd bring me down to meet the people there, and he'd be all proud of me." Vince said in a small emotional voice.

They all stared speechless; Vince fingered the shiny top he was wearing even as they learnt the reason for his conditioned love and dependency on clothes. Good outfits and fashion meant attention and affection. Naboo cleared his throat.

"The last thing I saw was you always getting tired, or coughing and being dizzy, getting all ill, probably from the lack of food. And he'd just take you to your all-mirrored room and just leave you."

"Well, he was busy, and he knew I could take care of myself." Vince defended.

"He left you alone and scared! You were crying, only a child! He just left you without a word, even if you were really ill, even if you asked him to stay! He abandoned you Vince! He let you get sick, and then left you alone and terrified of what was wrong, with nothing but clothes for comfort!" Naboo spoke frustratedly as Vince flinched. Howard could once again see the beginnings of doubt creeping into their easily swayed simple friend, just as it had with Bainbridge. Vince faltered distraughtly for an answer.

"I shouldn't have gotten sick, I was being useless." Vince tried, though even he seemed to know it was a weak attempt, he seemed to be reciting it from memory rather then believing it.

"You were a child, you couldn't, and still can't help getting sick." As Vince turned to the earnest shaman, almost as if begging to be told that he hadn't always screwed up. "It was his duty to take care of you, it wasn't your fault Vince."

As Naboo finished they all subtly held their breaths whilst Vince shuddered compulsively against this mental blockade, this obscene conditioning. They were aware that this was only a small snippet of Vince's childhood, and that there would be a long way to go to free Vince from his father's clutches, but this was probably the most important step. Before they could make it better, Vince had to believe he wasn't at fault, at least not entirely. This was a way bigger barrier then not going to the downstairs of Bainbridge's house, they were asking Vince to fight what he had been programmed to believe from the age of seven.

After a few shaky breaths, Vince spoke up hesitantly.

"You, promise?" The small, vulnerable voice from Vince activated Howard's protectiveness of the smaller man, he reached out and gently held Vince's hand.

"We promise." He said with a soft smile, even Naboo cracked one whilst Bollo nodded, a tearful smile was their beautiful response, and Howard swiftly pulled Vince into an embrace.

"You're a good person, Vince, don't forget that." Naboo said in a rarely caught moment of unmasked emotion as Vince turned to him. He patted Vince's back once before Bollo pulled him into a fury hug, causing Vince to start giggling.

Howard didn't think he'd ever heard a more beautiful sound at that moment.

The four passed the morning until lunch by playing card games with the ones Naboo had brought with him. Howard was convinced they were shaman cards as Naboo kept winning every game, but they were all a bit too distracted to care.

As lunch approached faster Vince became increasingly nervous, dropping the cards and fiddling repetitively, his nerves caught onto Howard and Bollo too, who became tense as well.

When the time finally came for lunch they made their way slowly down to the dinning room. All of them, including Naboo, unconsciously crept around the door and to a discrete table, which held those tiny sandwiches.

Soon enough Jacques and Fossil entered, Vince tensed and averted his gaze swiftly. However, the two men went to a table that contained different members of the zoo's staff, such as Gideon, Joey Moose, and the turnip man.

After the general eating frenzy died down, Jacques stood up to make an announcement.

"Now we're all fed and rested, the next activity shall take place, yoga. And I expect to see everyone there." That was the first point during the meal that his eyes grazed past their table, Vince shuddered slightly, and Howard was surprised to see him give an almost imperceptible nod.

Half an hour later found them all in a large, carpeted room with two walls practically all windowed on the ground floor. It seemed that Howard, Vince, Naboo and Bollo were the only ones without tracksuits with them. Of course, Vince had only packed fashionable, mostly glittery clothes, Bollo hadn't packed anything, all of Howard's clothes were lurid shirts and varying degrees of beige trousers, and Naboo only wore the latest in shaman wear, and turbans.

Seeing this Fossil walked over in a huff.

"What're you four doing, you think this is a freaking fashion freak show holiday? We're here to do some active activities and your here, in your fancy pants clothes!" He exploded in a fluster, and Vince hid behind Howard, although it was out of repulsion more then fear probably.

"What's going on here?" Came the voice of Mr. Noir from behind them, causing them all to jump and spin around dramatically.

"They don't have any clothes your mightiness." Fossil simpered.

"That's not a problem, I've brought spares." He sinisterly held up a bag and pulled out four pairs of identical, shiny silver tracksuits with neon green stripes down the side. Howard drew back in repulsion whilst Vince's eyes went wide and a dazzled grin appeared on his face.

"These are the new yoga-chic look from Paris." Jacques said, answering Vince's unasked question, as he excitedly took a sporty monstrosities, or sport-glamour outfits, depending on your outlook.

"Naboo and Bollo tentatively took the outfits, and Howard unhappily caught the one that was thrown at him. One good thing though, or bad, once again depending on your outlook, was that Vince was so captivated by the new clothes he forgot about his father for the time being.

After they left to change and then reemerged the yoga had already started. The occupants of the room all were watching a glamorous lady on a giant screen, who happened to be wearing the same matching outfit as the four friends.

They looked around for a place but didn't see any, until Jacques stood up and beckoned them over. They tentatively made their way over, having no other choice. Vince automatically went to the mat next to his dad, who was also wearing the same outfit, as the man waved him over. Knowing it would be suspicious to protest, the others took the next three mats along, Howard appalled he'd managed to end up nest to Fossil, instead of next to Vince, where Bollo was.

Several minutes into the yoga, Vince was shaking with both exertion from the strange poses, and nerves.

"Are you feeling any better Vince?" The shiny person jumped from the sudden question, accidentally prodding Bollo, who only needed the light touch to topple over. Vince didn't notice as the gorilla fought to get back in the original position, which wasn't that difficult, but he was an ape.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Vince finally replied, trying to ignore the slightly higher pitch to his voice.

"Good, I don't like seeing you ill."

"Apparently." Vince muttered without thinking, and immediately held his breath.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" The dangerous edge to Jacques' voice wasn't missed by his son, who shuddered slightly before taking a steadying breath. Remembering what Naboo said earlier he felt anger seep through him, brain that was yelling at him to stop temporarily disengaging from his mouth.

"Well you locked me in me room didn't you! Evidently you were too busy being repulsed to look after me like you were meant to." His voice broke slightly as he ranted quietly to his dad, and he shrunk when he saw the furious look.

Howard was distracted from Fossil's ramblings when he thought he heard Vince's voice, he looked over, but couldn't see either him or his dad through Bollo's flailing limbs. Surely the gorilla would have noticed if something was amiss. But in fact Bollo was too preoccupied with his own frustration at yoga to notice anyone else's.

"So that's what you think is it. You know very well that I took care of you best as I could, if you got really ill of course I would have took care of you, but I think we both knew you were putting on a show for attention. I was teaching you not to do so, and you seem to have forgotten about how much time I spent on you when you got that bought of flu." Jacques raged calmly and quietly back at Vince.

"B-but I was crying." Vince protested, only just remembering getting the flu, and being bed ridden for days, days when his father was constantly there to help him. Little did he know though that Naboo had also received the same image, although just then Bollo kicked him, so he temporarily forgot.

"You were working yourself up, and I had guests over most times, if they'd seen you crying they would have taken you away from me, and then where would you be Vince? In a foster home with no one wanting you, no beautiful and fashionable clothes just rags, would you have been happy there Vince? Really?"

Vince's mind swam in confusion and his eyes prickled as he tried to stick to one path of thinking, but it was as if his brain cell was debating with itself, and we all know Vince isn't programmed for debating.

"No, but..." Vince trailed off, and Jacques waited patiently. "I was lonely." He finished weakly in a small voice, it was the only phrase he could think of that summed up all of the feelings that were swirling within him.

"I know Vince, without your mother it was bound to be hard, but I wanted to raise you, I tried my best." The worst thing about that sentence was that Vince realized sickeningly that it was true, he had tried his best, Vince hadn't though. Even if his father did think that everything he was doing wrong was right, Vince never adultly tried to stop him. Vince's brain just wouldn't let go of the desire to believe and trust his only living parent; he'd never known his mum.

"I know you did dad." Vince chocked out, close to tears once more, there was something about reliving your past that made everything highly traumatic. Therefore, as Bollo's flailing arm swung out violently in a yoga-induced rage and slammed into Vince's stomach, he couldn't help when he tumbled over and then instinctively threw up.

Psychologist's would say that Vince's reaction of vomiting to the sudden trauma and pain, was a side affect from previous trauma and relived and suppressed memories, but Vince knew none of this, and Naboo was busy trying to untangle his usually perfectly groomed hair from his turban, and Howard was trying to find a happy place as Fossil begun dancing suggestively.

Vince crouched on hands and knees as he coughed from suddenly vomiting. His throat burned and tears once more streamed down his face. Soon the coughs turned to sobs of both shame and pain as he covered his face and held is bruised and throbbing stomach delicately.

"Vince!" Jacques begun in surprise, staring wide-eyed at his son, Vince cowered even more, choking out sounds that could have been 'sorry'. Suddenly the man came back to his senses, and reached for Vince. "Shh, its alright son, you must be quite ill to do that, shh."

Feeling his father's arms around him Vince instinctively leaned into the touch when he realized it was given in affection and not punishment. The combined effects of lack of sleep and not having eaten that morning, coupled with the fact that he was still quite underweight and the emotional onslaught, was causing Vince to feel extremely dizzy and light headed.

Vince sagged against his dad and found himself unable to move entirely.

"We had better get you to bed Vince, you need to sleep." The sentence struck fear through Vince like a disease.

_"I had better get Vince to bed, he needs to sleep." _The phrase he recalled oh so clearly sent chills of fear and protest through his body. Memories of being in the dark, surrounded by shadows of his own reflection staring sickly back at him, highlighted by strange streaks of neon lights. Alone with only the dulled sounds of talking and laughter that he was not part of. Being left there perhaps to die as his small and young mind created even more catastrophic and horrific illnesses that he may have become contaminated with.

He remembered crying softly, slowly increasing the volume in hopes that his dad would leave his guests in order to comfort him, but also holding back slightly, incase he really had been left here in quarantine, and not wanting to know the truth. Either that he was going to die, or that he wasn't wanted, a nuisance, a disgrace, a disease.

All the tragic unknowns pranced gleefully through Vince, laughing and taunting him.

"Vince?" He heard questioned from far away above him, that all-condemning voice that he both craved for and despised. Vince was suddenly aware of how violently he was shaking; one of his hands was tightly clenched in his hair, nearly ripping it out, the other painfully clutching the bruise forming on his stomach.

"Vince?" He heard the distant voice of Howard, calling from his as if from a far off dream of safety and joy, unobtainable in some way whilst he was still held in those wretched arms in this morbid house and the macabre fanfare that his life was here. Howard wouldn't, couldn't save him from his own father's arms here, it would look strange and suspicious to the zoo staff, and then there'd be trouble for everyone, not just him.

But he wouldn't be taken to that mirrored room and locked up there to scare himself into a seemingly inevitable death. That would be the end of being able to see his friends, if he let that happen. Yet to completely disregard his father would be the worse scenario of all to induce.

With all the sudden fright of a spooked cat Vince sprung out from the intoxicating embrace and stumbled slightly as his bare foot caught in the leg of his tracksuit. He was painfully aware of the many sets of eyes watching him, and the questions and calls for him that he could barely understand and distinguish.

Vince swung around, inky black hair falling perfectly around his face as he did so, and stormed beautifully and gracefully across the room to the corridor. Vince felt some small satisfaction that everyone in the room was too busy staring captivatedly at him to follow; he'd probably made it up several flights of stairs, now running, before anyone even remembered to blink.

If there was thing he was glad he learnt here, it was how to accomplish the art of looking good, at everything. Even after vomiting and crying, in fact the tears still danced softly down his pale skin as he tripped up the stairs to his room. Dashing down the corridor before he swirled round the door into the neon darkness, locking the door from the inside and collapsed dizzily onto the soft rugs and shiny cushions.

Lying on the floor, breathing shakily, Vince looked into the mirrored wall he was close to. His pale face contrasted beautifully with his raven hair, as the fringe fell delicately across his eyes, a slight blush gracing his face. The neon purple light from above him reflected off his face, not changing his skin tone abnormally like most would, but faintly gracing his hair so that it dazzled in his reflection and highlighting the tear tracks.

As Vince took in the reflection of his dazzling blue eyes he smiled softly, and stroked the soft material of a cushion before looking back at himself. At least he would die beautiful, was the last macabre thought he had before drifting into a fevered sleep, full of reflections, shouting voices and shadows.

::I enjoyed writing that last part, sometimes you find just the right song to capture something.

::Hope you enjoyed reading, please let me know your thoughts, and by the way, as Sparkiesteph said, I picture Vince's dad as Richard Ayoade as well, incase you need an image to follow. Thank you for the beautiful reviews.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination

Sorry for wait, laptop broke, breaking my heart and writing speed along with it.

Echo: 4 Heat And Fear.

It had been hours since Howard had seen Vince, he had run off at around two and it was now after nine and after dinner.

Never had he been more shocked then when Bollo's flailing limbs finally untangled and he saw Vince held in a possessive hug by his father, a pool of vomit beside them. Even from far away he had seen Vince's shivers.

"Vince?" Howard had asked loudly almost simultaneously with his father, there was about a second of complete stillness throughout the room. Howard stared wide-eyed as his mind honed in on the image of the pair, Vince twitched once in the silence before flying out of the now more tentative hold on him.

Howard could almost taste the certainty filled panic as stumbled slightly on his trouser leg.

"Vince, what?" Howard begun, not knowing where to start as his friend freeze-framed again temporarily.

"Vince you alright?" Came Naboo's concerned lisp.

"Bollo got a bad feeling." Came the gorilla's catch phrase just as both Fossil and Jacques asked- "Vincey?"

Howard watched as if in slow motion as Vince stood up strait and spun around deftly. He suddenly found he couldn't talk as he saw Vince's beautiful fury shining through his eyes as his raven hair flew around his face. He'd never seen Vince looking quite like that before, it was an emotion he would never have placed with the sunny person.

It was all any of them could do but to stare after him in stunned confusion and awe as he stormed out, almost leaving an aura behind him.

Surely enough it was a couple of minutes of shock before anyone was fully able to form coherent thoughts again, having all been temporarily paralyzed by Vince's sudden ethereal beauty.

By the time they were once more focused Jacques had rolled up Vince's yoga mat and strolled out at leisure, no doubt to leave it to be washed somewhere by something other then him.

Before Howard, Naboo or Bolo could rush after Vince Fossil had threatened to fire them unless they continued the yoga.

It was several hours before Jacques returned to take control and lead the exhausted staff in a crocodile line to dinner, the yoga tape having replayed several times as Fossil didn't know what else to do with them until control returned.

As they were also closely monitored by Jacques during the hour-long three-course meal, the three friends merely glanced conspiratorially to each other, Naboo having a particularly dark look.

Finally the jazz maverick, shaman and gorilla managed to escape back to their room, hoping to find Vince. Typically however their room was empty and dark when they entered, and bore no sign of Vince having entered it.

"What was all that about?" Howard flustered angrily as they stood for a moment to calm down.

"His old man's a bastard." Naboo exclaimed. "A complete freak!"

"Well yeah, we know, but-" Howard begun, wanting to get back to what had happened rather then random insulting.

"You don't understand! I had another vision. Vince got pneumonia as a child; his dad didn't even take him to the hospital! He nearly died, but his dad kept telling him he had the flu!" Howard was shocked again by the rage in Naboo's voice.

"How did it happen? Do you know?" Howard dreaded the concluding answer; it would settle the reason Vince was a 'sickly' child, whether it was natural immune deficiency, or abuse. Howard could already tell the answer by Naboo's barely contained fury behind his now slightly calmer exterior.

"He caught an infection of flu that escalated into pneumonia because of a poor physiology brought on by stress and malnourishment. You should have seen him Howard, he was so anorexic, so much worse then after Bainbridge. He could barely stand straight, but his dad only cared after he fainted at breakfast." Naboo's voice was slightly scared during the final part of the last sentence, and Howard gulped as he begun to see the reason why.

"But Naboo, Vince fainted this morning." He didn't even bother to hide the waver and uncertainty in his voice.

"Right before dad came in, Vince didn't smell right, looked all strange too." The two humans turned at Bollo's confirming words before Naboo slowly turned back to Howard.

"Howard, I don't know how, but I think being here is making Vince sick. He didn't sleep or eat, and he's fainted and thrown up. We need to help him and make it through this before Vince works himself into full blown pneumonia, there's bad juju here Howard." They were all left in no doubt from the certainty in Naboo's voice.

The realization of just how dire this week was had just sunken in. And if Vince could make himself ill just by the memories of this place, then who knew what else might be dredged up from the past.

"We need to find him now!" Howard gasped franticly out as if a clock had just started counting down Vince's life in his mind. Naboo and Bollo nodded before they all pelted to the door and down the corridor to the door that led to Vince's room.

Bollo nearly broke the door off its hinges as they barged through it, tumbling up the stairs and down the short corridor to thud against Vince's door. And find it locked.

"Vince!" Howard yelled, hammering on the door. Soon they were all desperately calling and beating the door until eventually Naboo ordered them to stop.

"Wait, he might not even be in there, lets listen." So the three switched position to have their ears against the door, this was made difficult by their differing heights and Bollo's general bulk.

Faintly through the door they could hear unhealthy, strained breathing that could only belong to the sick Vince, who was either deeply asleep or actually unconscious.

"What now? Can't you do something Naboo?" Howard's heart fell at the slow shaking of Naboo's head.

"No, shamans aren't locksmiths you know. We can only wait for him to wake up, lets leave a note under the door telling him to come down if he waits." Even Naboo sounded dubious about the reliability of this plan, but it was all they had.

Bollo and Naboo stood outside the room incase Vince woke up whilst Howard ran back down to their room, wrote a hasty note telling Vince that as soon as he woke up he should call for them out go to their room, which would be unlocked, and ran back upstairs.

They pushed the note under the door, hoping that it wouldn't be under a rug or cushion, and left slowly. Back in the room they made an unofficial sort of plan that if they woke in the night they would go check on Vince.

With that they allowed themselves to drift into an unrestfull sleep.

When Howard gradually drifted awake it was about one in the morning. He had no idea why he woke until he heard an awfully familiar sound, a high-pitched scream that could only belong to one person.

"Vince!" He gasped out as he fumbled and scrambled to get out of the blankets. Sprinting out of the room Howard turned into the corridor only to see the door leading to the stairs to Vince's room crash open as something literally rolled through it.

As the dark lump moaned and rolled slowly over to sprawl on it's back, Howard entirely realized who it was.

"Oh god Vince." He said deftly as he sprinted forwards, he reached his fallen friend and looked up the stairs to the corridor. To Howard's utter confusion and fear he saw a shadowed figure retreating into a hidden doorway just barely in his range of vision.

After a few shocked seconds Howard turned back to Vince. He was pale save for an unhealthy blush across his cheeks, sweat stuck his usually impeccable fringe to his forehead. Vince panted hoarsely with his eyes pinched shut, and Howard noticed a bleeding wound on his head, likely from falling down the stairs.

Managing to assess that Vince was at least conscious, Howard reached out to place his hand on the burning skin on his head. At the sudden coolness of the hand, Vince's eyes opened weakly and he stared up at Howard with fever-glazed vision.

"Howard?" He chocked out hoarsely, the harshness of his voice apparently a discomfort as he coughed feebly. As his face screwed up in pain Howard saw that Vince had evidently contracted the feared flu, or influenza, even if not yet pneumonia.

"Oh Vince, just hang in there ok?" Howard urged emotionally, and Vince's eyes fluttered open in consenting response even as he dragged in shallow breaths. Gently Howard slid his arms under Vince's shoulders and knees and lifted him slowly, too worried about the shadowy figure to leave Vince in the comfort of lying down.

Vince whimpered as he was lifted and carried, the movement aggravating him. Upon returning to the room Howard found Naboo and Bollo standing close to the door.

"Is he ok?" Naboo questioned, and Howard saved him the usual sarcasm for obviousness in favor of lying Vince down on the large bed. He lay there breathing weakly and twitching in fever.

"I know what woke him up though." Naboo continued as they gathered round the bed. " Another memory, his dad for some reason chased him out of the room and threw him down the stairs." At Naboo's vague voice Howard turned to him gaping as chills ran down his spine.

"But, but Naboo, at the top of the stairs, there was a shadowy thing. It disappeared pretty fast but it was definitely there." Howard stuttered in shock, Naboo sent him an equally confused look.

"Vince's ghosts coming to life." Bollo grunted, the three of them staring at each other in realized panic.

"You don't think?"

"I knew there was bad juju!"

"Said I had a bad feeling."

The three spoke simultaneously before a few seconds of detached silence as Vince's pained breathing brought them back to the here and now.

"Quick Bollo, go get some cold water and towels." Naboo commanded, sending Bollo hurrying to the bathroom. He then swiftly unzipped Vince's tracksuit top and removed it, followed by his t-shirt. As the gorilla returned Naboo turned to Howard.

"Cool him down and try to keep him awake. Me and Bollo will whip something up." He said in haste, hurrying Bollo to an ornamental pot in the corner that was about to become an honorary caldron.

Howard sighed and turned to Vince who was making small pathetic movements of discomfort, the sheet sticking to his pale sweaty skin. He sat next to his fallen comrade on the bed and dipped a towel in the water before gently dabbing the cut on his head. Luckily it seemed to have mostly clotted, and all he really had to do was wipe away the drying blood.

"Howard?" Vince asked breathlessly, rolling his head to face in his direction.

"Yeah I'm here Vince, you'll be alright ok? Just stay with me alright." Howard was shocked by the desperation in the last sentence as he stared into Vince's fevered eyes.

After a couple of thick seconds Vince let out a tiny, brave smile that swam dizzily on his face as he struggled to focus on Howard through vague and foggy vision.

"I'll try Howard." Howard's heart nearly broke at Vince's small cracked voice, brimming with emotion. The sick figure tried to lift an arm to Howard's hand, but he only managed a limp flailing movement that missed the intended limb.

"Shh, shh." Howard coaxed gently as Vince's eyes welled slightly with frustrated and miserable tears. He softly wiped the cool towel over Vince's closed eyelids as he took shuddering breaths.

Vince moaned slightly at the cool pressure, and Howard once again brushed his burning skin remembering how hot it was.

"I'm gonna cool you down ok, you'll feel better soon Vince." Vince made a small jerking movement with his head that could have been an attempted nod, and Howard took a deep breath to strengthen himself, Vince didn't need him breaking down as well.

Gently Howard dabbed his neck and chest with the towel, replenishing it with cool water regularly, eliciting small moans of pleasure from Vince as the cool water trickled down his searing skin.

'Surely even for a fever he shouldn't be this hot.' Howard found himself thinking as Vince kept panting hoarsely. Horrifyingly, Vince only seemed to get worse. His original twitches turned into him actually writhing about on the bed, panting desperately, as though his life depended on it, which it probably did. Soon after the transgression Howard realized the cold water wasn't doing anything to cool Vince down anymore.

"Howard, its really hot," Vince panted out desperately, his voice slurring. "I'm hot, Howard its too hot." Howard could barely stand the panic as he saw tears once more leak out of Vince's delirious fluttering eyes as he tossed and turned. Vince's voice was small and child-like as he cried from the unbearable heat.

"Howard, make it stop, please make it stop, I'll do anything, please, make it stop-"

"Naboo!" Howard cut through Vince's tear wrenched pleas, pleading him to save him, to make it better. Naboo and Bollo had heard the desperate cries as well, and were feverishly stirring the contents of the pot.

"We're not ready yet!" He shouted in frustration, turning to the desperate Howard, who was holding Vince down not incase he hurt himself, unfortunately causing him more heat. Naboo's turban was askew in his panic.

"We've gotta cool him down or his body will start shutting down, take him to the bathroom and wash him with the coldest setting, _quick_!" Naboo commanded before turning back to their concoction.

Howard didn't need telling twice, and swiftly scooped the struggling Vince into his arms, causing him to cry out sharply.

"No! Howard, please! Its too hot!" Howard blinked through his own panicked tears from Vince's pleas and sprinted to the bathroom.

Knowing it would take too long to run a bath, and not caring about clothes, Howard pulled both of them into the bath and grabbed the showerhead, switching it to high power on the coldest setting.

Vince screamed as the water touched his skin, but whether from the sudden cold or his brain misinterpreting it as hot, Howard didn't know. He held Vince firmly against him as he lunged to try and escape, and writhed away from the water.

"No, no! I'm sorry, please stop!" Vince screamed as Howard held the showerhead to Vince's hair, letting the freezing water soak through it.

Howard leaned back in the bath with Vince held tightly against him, now reduced to whimpers of fear and sickness. With the contrast of the icy water Howard could feel the heat radiate painfully off Vince.

Vince weakened to twitching and shaking, leaning his small weight on Howard as his hair went limp and stuck to him, the tracksuit also clinging to his legs as water pooled into the bottom of the plugged bath.

As Vince finally lost the strength to move, Howard stopped restraining him in favor of running a hand through the wet locks on his face, brushing the fringe out of his eyes. Howard coaxed and murmured comforting phrases in his ear, unable to tell if Vince cold understand him.

He reached up to hang the shower head back up, allowing the water to coat them entirely, the bath filling quickly with the icy water. Even though Vince was shuddering violently, likely from the sudden temperature change more then cold, Howard gently pooled water onto his chest and stomach.

It was only when the water had reached up to cover up to the bottom of Vince's rib cage that Howard detected a change in his breathing. The heavy, deep, throaty breaths Vince was giving alerted Howard of symptoms most people knew very well.

Reaching down Howard gently felt Vince's stomach, surely enough the muscled were contracting, he could feel his stomach churning as Vince made a keening sort of sound.

Reacting fast as Vince begun to make slight jerking-like movements, Howard swiftly pulled them out of the collecting water to lean over the side of the bath just as Vince vomited onto the tiled floor, Howard tried to ignore the suspicious red tint to the sick as Vince continued to wretch and cough, barely able to breath through the involuntary movements, water and tears.

Finally Vince slumped against the bath wall. Howard pulled the trembling figure back into the filling bath, where Vince collapsed into him and chocked breaths. Howard bit his lip as he stroked Vince's hair, seeing his eyes slowly roll up into his head, and then flick feverishly around the room, not focusing on anything.

"Its okay Vince, its gonna be okay." He begun saying, repeating it like a desperate mantra, he could tell Vince was trying to cling onto consciousness, and wanted to keep him there. The situation seemed too desperate for any hope of salvation until Naboo and Bollo dashed in, narrowly avoiding the sick.

They took in the trembling figures in the bath, one alert and one completely limp. Naboo swiftly pulled out a shiny cerulean pill.

"Quick, give him this Howard." Naboo instructed.

Howard took the pill and gradually managed to coax Vince into opening his mouth. Howard fed him the pill and then held the offered glass of water to Vince's lips.

Vince took a couple of shaky sips and managed to swallow with the help of Howard stroking his throat, before coughing feebly, barely mustering the energy to do so.

A few minutes later Naboo had sat on the edge of the bath and Bollo on the toilet seat. Howard watched as Vince's eyelids slowly closed, his breathing evening and deepening as he fell to a drug induced sleep.

"The pill should break his fever whilst he sleeps, we'll just have to watch him, then he should get better. At least from this." No one missed the sinister last sentence. They may have conquered this time, but who knew what would happen here.

After all, none of them knew what had happened in Vince's past. But they weren't going to let it repeat itself.

::Whew, like I said,, I have suffered from my first broken laptop, sob! But it's all better now so that's ok.

::I'm not gonna be able to write till Sunday, so please leave me reviews, I really need to know what people think of this story now, because I have to choose the slightly dark, creepy path, or the one that I don't know what I'd do in. So please let me know ya thoughts.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination

Thank you for reviewing, your all stars... strangeness ahead.

Echo: 5 Red and Green.

Howard awoke to sunshine hitting his face faintly through the curtains. The long night had finally ended.

The three friends had been kept busy throughout the night trying to steady Vince's wildly fluctuating temperature, and trying to prevent him from coming to any further harm as he writhed from the heat.

It had been a bit more difficult then Naboo had anticipated, and they had come to the uniform decision that it was either Vince's own mind preventing him from getting better, or the strange vibes from the house. Vince's lack of good health made the whole process take longer, and his fever finally broke at four in the morning.

Howard sighed and stretched, trying to work out the kinks of last night combined with sleeping on the couch. He grumbled as he got up and turned to the bed.

All miserable thoughts however were banished when he saw Vince stir from sleep and smile lazily at him. It felt as if he had just been rewarded for their efforts, Vince sat up and yawned, looking a bit pale, but otherwise healthy.

Howard sat next to him, trying to find the right words to say to convey his emotions.

"Don't do that to me again, alright?" Was the only thing he could come out with. Vince however didn't seem to mind his lack of words, instead reaching out to hug him gently.

"Thanks Howard." He mumbled softly, letting him know that he really was. Howard felt the warm emotions spread through him, and hugged Vince back before they heard a knock on the door.

The knock persisted even as they tried to groan their way through it, Naboo and Bollo also appearing looking murderous, stopping briefly on their way to the door to smile at Vince.

Howard wrenched the door open to once again see Fossil, standing there like a lemming looking in glee over the edge of a cliff.

"Time to wakey wakey, breakfasts in ten." He announced shortly, it seemed even fossil was on edge this morning, switching so quickly from glee to seriousness. The door slammed in their faces as the four turned to each other in pain.

"Well, he does still sign our paychecks." Howard remarked dryly, and they nodded unanimously before drifting off to get clothes, Vince went back to his room after assuring them he would only be a few minutes and would definitely return.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Breakfast was much the same as the day before, except Jacques was already there when they arrived, only giving them a passing glance, even so Vince still shuddered. Also there was a general tension or unease among the keepers, and the meal was nearly silent.

After about half an hour of tense eating, Jacques stood with an announcement.

"In twenty minutes we will commence the next activity, a walk through the woods, everyone must be present in the hall." With than he strolled off through the room, followed by the staff and Fossil eagerly scampering back to their rooms to prepare for the walk.

The four sighed with varying emotions, and left as well, after all, this way would cause much less commotion.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twenty-five minutes later found the Zooniverse employees being led through the forest by Fossil, following some mapped trail. Howard groaned that once again he had gotten the most useless position, furthest away from Vince. Unfortunately they had taken their naturally preferred place of furthest away from fossil, only to have Jacques announce he was going to keep up the rear, behind Vince.

Howard didn't dare look behind too many times in case of arising suspicion. But what he had glanced was both good and bad.

On one hand, Vince loved being outside, and Howard could see he was enjoying the forest. On the other, he would tense whenever Jacques spoke unhearable words to him, and about half an hour into the walk was beginning to tire. Howard could just hear the slightly strained breath, when he risked a glance one time he saw Vince stumble slightly.

What Howard couldn't place was the look of frustration on Vince's face after such an occurrence. Howard supposed that after having been raised in the forest it was a strain for Vince to be unable to fully enjoy it through his tiredness.

Vince himself was indeed remembering running through the forest with Colto the deaf horse, climbing trees with Jahooli the leopard and encountering Kalooni the Cobra. However, whenever he was just beginning to enjoy the deep calm of the forest, he would trip, or stumble, and he would remember that he wasn't living there, and that he couldn't just go running off to find his old friends.

That, and that whenever he would trip or stumble, Jacques would make some passing comment about 'being careful' or 'too delicate' or 'this is why I didn't let you out here again'.

To be frank, Vince was starting to feel a bit braver out here, and was getting fed up. He knew that his dad was out of his comfort zone out here, and was trying to make up for it by trying to put Vince down.

The worst thing was, Vince knew it was slowly working. His physical exhaustion was being speeded up by his mind, which wanted him to go curl up somewhere soft and warm and shiny, and never leave. He was feeling his small mind being torn in two as he fought instinct and desire on both fronts.

"That Bryan Ferry was so irresponsible, he should never have made you traipse around here. Its no wonder you were always so ill, he probably never fed you." Something snapped inside Vince at this latest pompous comment.

He remembered sitting at the huge dinner table, shaking already. That impending fear of doing something wrong, something unacceptable, eating too much so he wouldn't fit into those new jeans he had been given, drinking too little so that his father thought he was putting up a scene and sending him to his room, sitting wrong, holding the fork wrong, breathing wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. These thoughts would swirl around and grow like a cancer until when the food actually did arrive, he already felt too sick too eat.

Anger coursed through Vince, and even as Naboo turned to him in shock, he spun round to face his dad.

"Well at least he didn't make me too scared to eat!" Vince yelled at him, fury practically burning his eyes. Vince had only a split second to register the loathing and disgust in Jacques' eyes before a stinging blow on his cheek sent him to the ground.

"Don't you dare-" Jacques begun, but Vince had crawled backwards shakily in response to the man's advance, and soon felt the slippery moss disappear from under him.

A whirl of colors and shock later Vince found himself curled awkwardly on the ground, looking up at a seemingly impenetrable barrier of trees.

Faintly he could hear frantic voices of Naboo, Howard and Jacques calling for him. Vince sat up slowly, seeing some small dots of crimson staining the mossy ground.

He had fallen and there was blood staining the otherwise striking green ground. Pounding footfalls behind him showed that horrible, mustached, lying man was following him. The one that had introduced himself to Brian as 'Bainbridge, a friend of Vince's real father' and proceeded in trying to take Vince with him. Feeling hot prickles of tears Vince tried to get up only to find his foot trapped under a log as the footfalls came closer, closer, closer.

Vince shook his head desperately as memories of his last night in the forest came back to him. He looked up to see the sky had covered over with menacing, dark clouds. Suddenly feeling scared and alone, separated from any sort of safety and love, Vince struggled to get up. Only he couldn't, because his foot was trapped under a log.

Tears of panic prickled his eyes, and suddenly he could hear the same footfalls of that man on his horse drawing nearer. Vince gasped and struggled desperately with the heavy log, practically tearing his foot in the process.

The branches of the trees around him suddenly cracked, Vince looked up in horror, waves of fear washing over him as his dilated pupils registered the large shadowy horse and rider approaching him sinisterly slowly.

"Oh please no, crap, no, no, no." He pleaded to no one through tears as he desperately tried to tug away from the log, eyes never leaving the figure as the horse moved to stand over Vince in complete mimicry of that fateful night. The storm light highlighted over sightless eyes as the horse snorted faintly, real steam clouding the air for seconds that felt like eternity. Vince knew what would happen next, and even as he imagined it, the huge horse rose onto its hind legs in a violent movement and pawed the air whilst it let out a chilling cry.

Vince saw the deadly hooves come towards him, tearing through the air in slow motion as his memories and reality blurred his sight, and screamed. Piercing and from every core of his being. He screamed for his life, as he truly believed this would be the end of it, the last sight of Vince Noir. Just like on that night. But then he heard an even more feral cry then the horse, a growling scream of a cry, Vince looked up, terrified of what new threat this might be.

Vince saw a yellow streak tear through the shadows of both horse and rider, dispersing them into the now drizzling rain as thunder-cracked overhead. Once over the shock, he slowly looked up to see the yellow and furry body of none other then Jahooli the leopard.

The shock, fear, fatigue and panic all combined and swirled and then gradually dispersed until Vince felt so sick and weak that he thought his mind may actually have fled his body along with the shadows, he collapsed onto the ground, trembling, unable to form coherent thoughts through the lingering miasmas of terror.

Jahooli slowly moved forwards and gently eased his damaged foot from under the log, before sliding under one of Vince's arms and purring loudly.

"Come on little child, your friends will be worried for you." Vince clung tightly to the leopard and nodded tiredly, too drained and turmoiled to think, only able to absorb the gentle but deadly purr of Jahooli.

"You can't let him win Vince, the bastard doesn't deserve you, but I can't help you this time as I'm late for golf." Vince nodded, Jahooli was always very fond of sports, and so he heaved himself up with the help of his friend, who could handily stand on two legs. Wincing as he put weight on his left foot Vince swayed slightly, just as the two heard crashing coming through the trees.

"That'll be your friends then Vince, stay safe little child." The leopard purred silkily before slinking off, helping Vince lean on a tree as he did so.

"Bye Jahooli, say hi to Brian for me!" Vince called after him in a moment of light heartedness, Jahooli responded to the dizzy grin with a just slightly deranged one before winking and running into the trees.

"Thank you, for everything." Vince added once the lethal creature was out of hearing range.

A large crash through the trees above him alerted Vince to the presence of his would-be-rescuer. Surely enough Bollo appeared from the trees, looking more powerful then Vince had ever seen him.

"Vince!" The gorilla announced as he saw him, eyes wide with fear for him. It was then that Vince realized how loud he must have screamed.

"Its alright Bollo." He quickly went to reassure, stepping towards him. "I'm-" The fine was cut off however when Vince's leg collapsed under him as his left foot and ankle gave way as he stepped on it.

Falling to the ground in a heap, Vince looked mildly surprised at the red dripping from his ankle, and became temporarily mesmerized by it as he felt Bollo haul him up under the arms.

The small spatters on the ground the only, but the constant reminder of that night repeated. He managed to shake himself out of the trance as Bollo begun to drag him through the trees, back to the path.

Bollo eventually managed to haul the two of them over the edge of the slippery path, the rain now splattering insultingly on the forest, as if trying to wash out the pain of there. Desperately clean away the blood.

Vince and Bollo lay on the wet ground as the rest of the walkers crowded around them. First Vince saw Naboo's horrified face close to his. In that moment Vince was suddenly glad someone else understood his past, because he couldn't even begin to explain it in words. He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them to look directly into the shaman's, trying to convey everything and nothing at once.

Howard soon rolled him over to ascertain his health; he could almost taste the larger man's fear for him.

"Howard." Vince said loudly over the man's stuttered queries and worries. As their eyes met he smiled, and Howard smiled in relief in return, glad that Vince at least had his spirit still.

"I told you not to worry me like that." He said seriously, and Vince sat up to hug him briefly. But then he turned to see Jacques's shocked eyes.

The man reached out to him slowly before turning away sharply back on the path home. Vince shuddered, the retreating back's eerie calm said more then words ever could, even if he didn't know what those words would actually be. It didn't bode well.

Bollo carried Vince back, where Jacques announced with fatal clam that there would be no more activities today, and they were all to stay in their rooms for the remainder of the day.

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Several hours later the four were in one of the large rooms, warm and dry after Vince had gone through what had happened to make him scream. Howard had never heard such a blood chilling sound before that day. The other screams he had heard from Vince could not compare.

"But what happened back then when he came after you?" Naboo questioned. "You said Jahooli wasn't there then." Vince's sad look returned as he shook his head morosely.

"The horse knocked me out as a hoof caught me. Next thing I knew I was in my room, but from then its all headaches until the day I tried to get outside. I think I was mostly in bed." The listening three nodded thoughtfully.

"Only five and a half more days Vince, I swear you won't stay here." Howard promised fiercely. There was no way he would let this tyrant keep him, just imagining Vince being ripped from the forest like that was heartbreaking enough.

Vince smiled gratefully at Howard, relief shining through his blue eyes.

"Yes, we take good care of Vince." Bollo announced proudly, hitting himself on the chest. Naboo, Vince and Howard all had to conceal their laughter when the violent hit made his voice crack temporarily.

::Really would like to know what you think here, as next chapter will be... dark and maybe slightly psychotic, just to warn you.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Yes, a bit psychotic and rather grotesque probably, quite twisted so you're warned to put your Vince-turmoil loving glasses on!

Echo: 6 Lobster Pot.

They never heard to go to dinner, or any other social function, so the four friends stayed in the room for the rest of the day. Vince only stirred late in the night because of a strange dream.

Not a nightmare, just full of strange flashes and sounds. Once awake however, he felt the inexplicable need to leave the room.

In a trance like state Vince got out of bed and walked past the sleeping Howard, leaving the room. As if drawn by some imaginary string he walked to the corridor that led to his room.

Vince had the knowledge that this was a bad idea, but he couldn't help it. With shaking hands he opened the dark door that led to places he'd never been allowed into, and limped through the dark on his slightly sore ankle.

Down dark corridors that occasionally had windows open to the thunder and lightning outside. The storm light barely showed the path ahead, and for most of the journey Vince felt blindly along the walls.

It was all in a few lethal seconds after Vince felt the wall wheel away from him as the corridor opened into a room that things too a more drastic turn on the little nighttime outing.

Bright white lights lit the room, and Vince had to cover his eyes from it as the room turned into a sterilized white.

As his eyes begun to adjust he saw a large room that was indeed sterile white. The room was empty save for several holes in the floor that seemed to be imbedded empty containers, and on the wall there was a single open door.

Vince's breath caught as a figure stepped through the door.

"You were very bad today Vince." Came the sinisterly rich tones of Jacques as he moved into the light. Vince lurched backwards in fear, only to once again feel the ground disappear under him. After a sudden drop and much scraping Vince managed to halt his fall by grabbing onto the world outside with his arms.

He came to realize than he had fallen into one of the large pots in the floor, although his feet didn't touch the bottom. Vince hung, shoulders and arms just managing to keep his head above the deep darkness of the pot, he looked up with panicked eyes to see Jacques standing over him. The most grotesque sneer of triumph on his face.

"Well well Vince, seems you've got yourself into quite a pickle." It was in that moment that watery chills washed down Vince's spine, and he knew with a certainty, that his father meant him to die here.

With that awful clarity, Vince knew he had never been loved; he had never done anything to make this man truly want him. Vince was the accessory, and he was about to get chucked out like last year's fashion. Those subtle looks of hate he had caught throughout life told him that, no matter what he was wearing, he was wrong.

Vince had never felt more defiled then in that moment, in the disgusted gaze of his only parent.

"Sleep well Vince." Came the gleefully sinister voice, before his hands that had managed to get a slender grasp on the pot opposite him were stamped on viciously.

Vince held on as long as he could, but as he felt the bones cracking under so many years of pent up hatred he allowed himself to slip and fall into the bottom of the pot.

Vince landed with a thick splash at the bottom, as he took in that he had landed into some horrible sort of thick heavy liquid he jumped violently. Hitting slippery and slimy walls Vince looked down to see a dark fluid pooled around his bum and feet. From the light still appearing over the entrance he could see a red tint to the liquid, and felt himself grow could, the world narrowing in sickeningly.

"Well you know how I never could stand staff Vince, and after hiring some a little while ago I got frustrated with them, so they had a few...accidents." Vince stared in horror at the face above him that sounded about as joyful as it got, he was actually deranged.

"Seems I've finally found a use for all that blood." He trailed off, and disappeared momentarily.

"No!" Vince screamed, jumping up and slipping, sliding on the bloody floor and walls as he scrambled for the distant exit, not caring as his broken hands bashed against the wall painfully, not caring that the sticky wet substance was coating his hands and clothes. "No you can't!" He pleaded desperately, not caring that his voice was high pitched and shrieking.

"I think you'll find I can, and I will." Vince heard the deathly cold voice and saw the white light outlining the face one last time before a disk was lowered into the pot. He stared transfixed at it as he heard it moving down the hole, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Vince had to sit back down as it slotted into place, knees drawn up to his chest as that was all the width of the pot allowed.

Vince's heavy and panicked breathing was the only sound for a few seconds, before the sound of liquid thudding against the disk could be heard, making him jump. Vince's stomach dropped like a stone, he was being buried alive, or drowned, or something horrific that he couldn't and wouldn't understand and word.

Feeling tendrils of panic grip him painfully, Vince pushed desperately against the heavy disk, weighed down by the fluid contained on the other side of it. He tried to ignore the cracking of some of his fingers and the daggers of pain as he shoved against his, basically, lid.

Cold thick blood poured onto his face as he made the lid budge slightly. Coughing and retching Vince let go, swiping desperately at his face, he looked up at the lid before realizing he couldn't see, the pitch black encroached into his eyes and mind as he lay in the metallic liquid.

The cramped space, the god-awful smell, he couldn't even move, he was going to die, he was going to die, he couldn't breath, couldn't take it in. Vince panted desperately, greedily inhaling the air as a primal terror invaded every cell of his being.

Vince begun thrashing desperately, bashing at the lid, the stress taking him longer to learn that it only made more blood fall into the pool, onto him. Soon the blood was covering up to his chest as he panted breathlessly, practically hyperventilating, his thrashes turned to twitches and shudders as he sat there in shock.

He couldn't take it in, couldn't think, it was getting harder to breathe, he was trapped and cramped. Suddenly the smallness of the space was unbearable. The only sound he could hear was his own panicked breathing. He shuddered in horror that he couldn't move, suddenly ever fiber of him desperately needed to run.

Vince clutched at his hair, shuddering at the feel of the blood through his clothes. But soon he couldn't think of anything, only muttering nonsense out loud to himself as he clutched at his head with broken fingers, rocking back and forth subconsciously. He didn't notice that his hair was wet and sticky, crumpled and tangling.

Gradually he let himself succumb to the nothingness, finding the slightly warm thick liquid both sickening and comforting. He begun to feel strangely light headed as the air begun to turn thin and useless. Vince slumped against the slimy wall, almost snuggling deeper into the liquid as he slipped down, shuddering. He nuzzled into the wetness of the wall, eyes wide and staring as he muttered to himself.

"No one'll see me, no one'll see me, its alright, I'm beautiful, I'm not wrong, its alright, no one'll see me." He repeated the macabre mantra as his mind went dead and blank to the world, encompassing the lethal dark of his lidded prison.

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"Howard, Howard! Wake up you berk!" Howard jerked awake annoyed, both at the whole awakening and the insult. He was about to reply with a hugely witty come back when he saw Naboo's pale and sweaty face in the faint lamp light. The shaman's eyes were wide and dilated with panic.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" He asked swiftly, the pricklings of panic waking him up. The question was postponed however when Bollo burst into the room.

"Vince not in room, not even locked." Howard saw the shaman's eyes darken as he frowned, biting his lip slightly. Howard was shocked, never before had he seen him properly scared.

"What's going on?" He questioned, the seriousness in his voice successfully masking his fear and bringing some scant order back to Naboo.

"I had a vision, but I thought it was a dream, so I wanted to make sure but..." He trailed off, Howard had to bite back his fear and impatience.

"Howard, try to keep calm ok? Getting into a state isn't gonna help Vince alright?" Now Howard was really getting worried, he tried to laugh slightly to lighten the mood, but Naboo looked at him sternly for his promise, so he nodded slowly, gulping.

"All right then, I was in Jacques' body, he was in this white room, an Vince-" Naboo choked slightly before recalling the whole story.

Howard went through varying degrees of anger, shock and terror for Vince as Naboo recounted him falling into some storage vat. The dream had been more like flashing images as Naboo had seen Vince briefly in the bottom of the pot in some fluid, a lid lowered on top and then fluid poured over it, filling up to the top of the pot where another lid was placed on.

"Howard, the liquid looked red, I think, I think it was blood." He murmured out in as much shock as Howard felt. He felt a swirling sense of terror and mental collapse until he pictured Vince, alone and afraid and, and Howard couldn't even imagine what else.

"We've got to find him, now! He's fucking going to die Naboo! Drowning or buried alive or whatever!" Howard yelped out, jumping up and running to the door.

"I know Howard! But we've looked everywhere! Bollo searched the whole house for about one and a half hours!" Came the frantic response, Howard turned to stare in disbelief.

"_What_! Naboo he might already be _dead_! What are we going to do?!" He yelled as the shaman shook his head. Then Howard, whose hand was on the door, was suddenly thrown backwards as it flew open.

He lay dazed for a second before getting up to stare at none other then Bob Fossil. The three all gaped stupidly at him.

"You guys, I think I've just seen a bad thing, and little Vince is in trouble!" Fossil announced in an unusual flustered panic. Bollo seemed to be the first to recover.

"What you see?" Fossil gulped and continued.

"Well I was following his mightiness when he went into the white room, and then Vincey was there and then it was all horrible and screaming!" Fossil recounted in genuine horror, even if it was childlike.

"How did it take you so long to come get us then!" Naboo raged.

"Well I got lost, but come on! We have to save Vincey!" Fossil announced, and Howard, Naboo and Bollo had to run after him as he took off.

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Howard hadn't been aware of where they were going through the mansion as they sprinted after the surprisingly fast Fossil, and it seemed very sudden when they were suddenly in a huge white room from the previous darkness.

"Which ones he in! Which one!" Naboo yelled, running from closed pot to closed pot, careful to avoid the open ones.

"It was near that end!" Fossil answered on command and they ran over, but still there were several closed pots.

"Take all the tops off!" Howard yelled.

"With what!" Naboo cried back at him. Howard looked around desperately, he had seen just how deep and small those holes were, he wanted Vince out of there.

"Bollo found crow bar and vacuum!" The gorilla announced, swiftly managing to decapitate the nearest pot. Empty.

"What do we need a vacuum for?!" Howard yelled in frustration as Bollo moved to the next pot.

"To get the blood out numbskull!" Fossil replied, and Howard had to repress his annoyance as Naboo told them to shut up.

"Vince here!" everyone turned to Bollo's sudden cry of both triumph and panic, and saw a deep pool of crimson that they could not see beyond the surface of.

"Oh shit!" Howard moaned in agony, repressing the urge to vomit at the sight and stench as Naboo rushed forwards with the vacuum.

It took ridiculously too long to hoover out the foul fluid, the rancid smell of it filling the room instantly. It didn't help that they had to regularly empty the hoover into one of the empty pots as it filled, and the blood pooled and sloshed around their feet seemingly in triumph, staining the sterile white floor a deep intruding crimson.

Whilst Naboo and Bollo hoovered and emptied, Howard and Fossil found a long pole with a hook on the end. Howard was certain that this would be how the removed the second lid.

"We can see the lid hurry!" Naboo cried as the hoover left only a thin layer of blood. Howard handed the pole to Bollo, who was easily the strongest.

"Hold on Vince! We're nearly there!" Howard yelled, desperate to offer some sort of comfort to the likely distraught Vince. Bollo managed to hook the pole onto a handle on the lid and begun to pull, the lid slowly slipped up in jerks as he pulled and the others called out to Vince desperately.

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Calls begun to pierce Vince's haze. He rolled his head and eyes upwards as he made out the sound of Howard's voice. Vince trembled violently as his brain once more begun to kick in, the hole was still pitch black, but he could sense the lid slipping upwards, allowing more air into the small area.

It was almost as if he had forgotten how to breathe properly, and Vince gasped and panted out the air, barely daring to hope that it was really Howard. It sounded so real, but surely they would never have found him.

"Howard." Vince found himself sob out suddenly, to weak and frightened to do anything else, his brain still hazy from the lack of oxygen. "Howard please find me." He begged quietly, shrinking down as the lid moved upwards slowly.

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"We're nearly there Vince!" Howard called as the lid inched up to the top. With an out of place popping noise the lid freed itself and Bollo tossed it away.

Deep, deep down at the bottom of a bloodstained hole, legs scrunched up to his chest, drenched in blood with it pooling up to his chest, bruised, battered and with eyes screwed shut from the light, lay Vince, gasping, coughing and twitching.

None of them could say anything as gradually Vince managed to squint up into the light. Howard saw bruises and cuts on him, likely from trying to get out, and his hair was matted and dull, clothes soaked crimson and smears of blood on his face.

"Howard, a-are you really there?" Howard chocked at Vince's quite, hoarse, pleading voice, his watery eyes stared up at him desperately as he shuddered.

"Yeah Vince, I'm real." He answered back softly, Vince chocked out a sob of his own and he trembled harder with relief.

"Howard, I want to come out." Vince whimpered, breaking Howard all over again.

"We're getting you out Vince. Bollo, quick, the pole." Howard managed to say in a vaguely normal voice. Bollo quickly lowered the hooked pole; luckily it was long, down to Vince. The hole was too small for anyone else to fit down, even if they'd wanted to.

"Vince grab on and Bollo pull." Bollo instructed the in-shock Vince, who reached out, drawing his arms out of the pooled blood sloppily. Vaguely Vince grabbed at the pole, more resting his hands on it then holding it.

"Vince-" Howard begun, but he looked down at an elbowing from Naboo, and saw that most of Vince's fingers were actively bleeding and curled at odd angles unnaturally. They were broken, and badly by the looks of it.

"I know it hurts, but try to hold on okay?" Howard pleaded with him shakily, and felt his eyes prickle at how readily Vince curled his broken fingers around the pole for him, cracking the bones painfully, although Vince seemed numb to it.

"That's right, it'll be ok, just hold on tight alright." Howard coaxed as Bollo begun to draw the pole up carefully, making Vince whimper again. Howard suspected both out of pain and desperation to get out.

They soon worked out that Vince couldn't stand up as his legs went lax as Bollo pulled him with monkey strength from the hole. Vince cried out as his feet left the floor, hands sliding down the pole to the very hook, Howard could hear the crunching as Vince made a keening sound.

They watched in despair as Vince's shaking hands cracked and slipped off the pole. He fell, landing in the blood pool awkwardly and crying out in pain, the liquid sloshing around him.

"It's okay Vince! Just try again alright?" Howard choked out; Naboo's eyes were wide as he joined in.

"You can do it Vince, just try again." Vince sobbed slightly before responding.

"I'll try." he near whispered, and obediently clutched decrepitly at the pole, the cracking sounds making Howard want to wretch.

Once more Bollo pulled the pole up out of the hole, Vince biting his lip so hard it was bleeding. Once more once Vince's feet left the floor the weight on his wrecked hands send him slipping straight back into the thick fluid.

The crashing splash and thud as Vince fell back had them all cringing. The liquid eventually stopped moving and Howard looked down to see Vince curled unnaturally, legs scrunched up and twisted, as he slipped further down. Much to the onlooker's horror, Vince threw up violently, not caring that he was covered in now two disgusting things.

Vince's head dropped and lolled dangerously close to the rancid fluid, Howard saw that he was trembling so violently that his whole body wracked with tremors, causing him to jerk and twitch.

"Come on Vince, you've gotta get up, you can make it." They all had to strain to hear the answer to Howard's panicked coaxing.

"I can't Howard, I'm not strong enough." Vince's voice was distressingly quiet, and distraught with on-coming tears.

Naboo suddenly lay down on his stomach; ignoring any blood stains to his robes, and reached into the hole.

"Its alright Vince, I wont let you fall." He lisped sincerely. Fossil scampered to Bollo, and added his mediocre strength to the ape's on the pole. Howard quickly caught on, and ran to the other side of Bollo and Fossil, lying down as well and reaching to prepare to catch Vince, to try to take some weight off his hands.

"Just one more time alright, just once more for us, please." Howard all but begged the thin, trembling Vince. Glazed and sick blue eyes opened to look up at him briefly, and then Vince started struggling to sit up properly. Too tired to talk Vince simply raised a hand out of the water and clasped feebly onto the pole, then bringing up the second.

"That's good Vince, just hang on okay, we'll get you out I promise." Howard spilled out swiftly as Vince frowned and gasped as he clutched to pole tighter. He knew Vince couldn't handle another go if this failed, Howard could see him visibly weakening, lacking the strength necessary to pull himself out. And if they didn't manage this time then Howard didn't know what they could do.

Vince shuddered with emotions and pain and fatigue as Fossil and Bollo pulled again, moving quickly as they could. The pole was now very slippery, and Vince whimpered in frustration as he once more slipped down to the hook.

Fast as the puma he was Naboo reached and grabbed onto Vince's wrist, straining at the odd angle to help take the weight off. Howard followed, grabbing onto his friend's arm as he gasped and cried, eyes pinched shut from the pain.

Slowly he was drawn out of the hole, the added weight of the blood doubling the small weight on Vince's small frame. As soon as he could reach, Howard grabbed Vince around the chest tightly, dragging him out of the hole just in time as Vince's hands lost all grip on the pole.

Vince crumpled in a sodden heap on the floor, crying, panting and coughing all at once as he curled up, cradling his broken hands as he shook. Blood and sick dripped off his soaked frame, the clothes sticking to him uncomfortably. His hands were an absolute mess, fragments of bone stuck randomly out of the pale skin, bleeding profusely. They stayed curled and Howard believed Vince couldn't move them at all any more; each movement as they touched something caused his breath to hitch, and him to twitch painfully.

"Its okay Vince, you're safe, it's okay." Howard gently coaxed as he rubbed Vince's back. They stayed like that for several minutes until Vince managed to open his eyes again. Because even if they were in danger of Jacques returning, if they rushed Vince now before he was ready, it would take years for him to allow them to help him through it again. As Vince pushed himself slightly off the floor, weakly and slipping, Howard realized that Vince now knew he had to make it through this, he was distraught, stressed, had been put through hell and was suffering badly, but would fight for his freedom now. Howard smiled at his bravery, for although Vince was still trembling and scared, he was trying, and that was the most important thing in the world.

"I'm alright Howard, I don't want to leave you guys." Howard's breath hitched at the sincerity in Vince's eyes as he said that, he really did want to stay with them, he didn't want to stay with his father, and he didn't want to die. Of all the things Vince was, weak was not one of them. His eyes drooped and he sunk a little closer to the floor, tiered and distressed, but alive.

Gently Bollo slipped arms under Vince and pulled him up. Vince couldn't stand as his legs shook so badly, and had gone dead from being in the hole; he slumped gratefully on Bollo, still holding his damaged hands close.

Bollo carried Vince back to the room, and he was barely awake at the end of it, Naboo kept checking his breathing and pulse as they went, Fossil kept a timid sort of presence until scampering back to his room, Howard talked randomly to Vince the whole way back, about anything and everything that came to mind.

Howard wanted to help Vince feel accept and move on as much and quickly as possible about this incident, and so talked both about things like animals and weather, but also about Jacques and the hole, asking Vince questions about a wide range of things. The sooner that Vince could begin to put it behind him the better, and even as they walked he managed to talk more easily about what it had been like down there.

That was the amazing quality about Vince, whether it was because he was a tad simple or because he was naturally blessed with sunshine to wash away his pain, he was able to see the best in things, to recover. And though Howard knew that Vince would probably always be claustrophobic or afraid of blood or holes, they had managed to get there when it counted. Howard could already tell that Vince was more glad to be with his friends then scared of being down that hole, and that had to be good, it felt right anyway.

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Upon arriving in the room Vince stated that he wanted a shower, badly. However none of them wanted to leave him alone, just incase he got hurt or fell, or had developed a fear of liquid. Especially as he could still not stand up.

Bollo gently helped him sit down in the bath and turn on the shower, Naboo then carefully washed off Vince's hands, and begun the painstaking work of gently prodding the cracked bones into place with the help of some painkilling tweezers that took away some of Vince's agony. Carefully he wrapped them up with some waterproof bandages after rubbing plenty of his healing green goop on that he had used on Vince's ankle before.

Vince visibly relaxed slightly as the paste washed the pain into a bearable, compared to before, dull throbbing, and Naboo left the fingers un-splinted until Vince was done washing. They couldn't come to too much more damage anyway, and the bandages were thick and sturdy, being waterproof and all.

After this Naboo shut the shower curtains, and Vince tore off his putrid clothes, passing them trough the curtains into a bin, that Bollo then went to empty onto the room's fireplace.

Naboo, Howard and Bollo then sat in the bathroom after having shifted a sofa in there, Vince having the, luckily, non-see-through curtain drawn as they sat with their backs to the bath.

Bollo even brought the TV into the small room and they laughed and chattered, Vince even joined in. And although someway through a Mc Donald's advert he started crying again, lying down in the bath and sobbing his heart out, he talked to them through it as they comforted him.

He'd been so alone and scared that Howard nearly cried himself, Bollo actually did. The great ape even crashed through the shower curtain to hug the soapy Vince, who had screamed as any person would, but somehow it seemed alright for the fur ball to be in the shower with him, they all knew Bollo would never try anything, they'd all seen his stashed copies of Mandrill Wives.

In fact the whole event of Bollo breaking the curtains down turned out to make Vince laugh more then ever, bringing Howard and Naboo along with him.

Once Bollo had removed himself from the bath Vince finished his shower, carefully and obsessively using up vast amounts of soap, shampoo and conditioner repetitively and washing with both cold and hot water for about an hour. Not that any of them minded, Howard and Naboo had also changed their clothes and washed their feet, legs, hands and arms as best they could in the sink.

Once Vince had finished, they encountered a slight problem.

Vince's bandaged hands were even more useless for drying then washing; at least there the water did most of the work. In the end Vince had had to pat himself dry as best as he could, and then walk around in a dressing gown whilst he air dried, cautiously allowing Bollo to use the hairdryer and comb on his precious hair.

As his hair was dried Naboo changed the waterproof bandages to softer ones and washed off and re-applied the gone-brown goop. He said the color change meant it was working at full capacity, and indeed the cuts and slices had stopped bleeding so much, just slightly oozing blood. He gently splinted the broken fingers together and wrapped more bandages and some tape around them to keep them in place before tending to Vince's other scrapes and cuts.

Looking a bit like a walking advert for every single type of plaster in the world, Vince begun to fall asleep.

Howard felt Vince cuddle up to him as they begun to drift off in the huge bed. For some reason all four of them had felt the solidarity of sleeping together was necessary. And all of them wanted to be there for Vince if he woke up scared, and not wanting him to feel lonely.

Feeling Vince's small tremors Howard wrapped protective arms around him, smiling as Vince sighed contentedly and Bollo's large arm came to drape across him, also covering Naboo in the process.

Somehow, Howard didn't think he'd ever had a more wholesome, if not stranger, sleep, and Vince didn't wake once.

::I really need/want to know what you guys thought of this, your lovely reviews fuelled my speed and enjoyment of writing this chapter, and I want to know if you liked...'cause this isn't over yet, and if you liked then I can keep up the dark and creepy till the bitter end! Mwahaha!

::Thanks forever for reading, shadowtheo.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Angst lies ahead, next one hopefully soon.

Echo: 7 Water Works.

There was no wake up call from Fossil, and too much tiredness in the room to be able to wake up early. Therefore Howard was not surprised when he woke satisfied to find that it was three in the afternoon. Well they had gone to sleep at about four in the mourning.

Bollo and Naboo were already awake and had un-tangled themselves from the bed. Naboo was pounding some strange looking beetle husks into a paste with some spinach that Bollo was handing to him, the TV was on quietly in the background showing a Colobus marathon.

"Alright Howard?" Naboo asked without turning around. Howard made some sort of affirmative noise.

"What are you making there Naboo?" He asked in a business-like manner, not wanting to get out of bed yet and disturb Vince.

"Well, don't tell Vince, but this is for his hands, it's that stuff I put on it." Howard wrinkled his nose, yes; Vince would definitely refuse the healing ointment if he saw the odd combination of dry deceased beetle shells and weird liquid seeping spinach. Yes, that would certainly go down a storm.

"NO!" Howard leapt about a foot in the air from the scream next to him. He swung around in panic to see Vince panting heavily head and eyes flying around to scan the room before he realized where he was.

"Vince you okay?" Howard asked breathlessly, Vince spun round on the bed to see him, finally relaxing slightly before collapsing back down, eyes closed.

Howard saw Vince's nod, but his eyes were still tightly shut, and his pants had turned shuddery. His gaze washed over Vince, who was now making small gasps of discomfort.

He was tense and trembling slightly, and his hands were held just above the covers, as if even the small pressure hurt. Howard glanced over to Naboo and Bollo, who were also looking on nervously.

"Vince, you sure you're okay?" Vince's eyes rolled open slightly and he struggled to sit up. Once he had managed to swing his legs over the side of the bed he let out a trembling breath.

"It hurts everywhere." Howard swallowed at Vince's heavy and strained Voice, and swiftly looked over to Naboo, who had come scrambling over. Vince gasped particularly thickly.

"It even hurts to breathe." He choked out. Naboo frowned and slid Vince's dressing gown off his shoulders, his face turning to a look of pain.

Vince's chest and back were both heavily bruised and scraped, something that neither they nor Vince had noticed last night, probably because of the painkillers Naboo gave him.

Bollo gently placed a hand on Vince's back, only for him to flinch away.

"Vince in bad way Naboo." He grunted unnecessarily.

"Naboo, don't you have any potions or lotions?" Howard asked desperately.

"No, he's maxed out."

"Maxed out? What?"

"He can't have any more magic ointments, it could make his hair fall out." Naboo stated matter-a-factly, to which Vince gasped and reeled back in horror, only to moan and hold his hands near his chest as if in pain.

"Well there's got to be something!" Howard pushed, hating seeing Vince in discomfort.

"A bath?"

"A _bath_! Naboo, it hurts him to breath, not to move!"

"Actually, that does hurt too." Vince mumbled out quietly.

"Well it's not my fault that you forgot to pack the normal drugs! I'm not a vending machine you know!" Naboo defended, looking at Howard as if he were an imbecile.

"Yeah, Howard an idiot." Bollo affirmed, and Howard huffed.

"I wouldn't mind a bath actually." Vince announced, and the shudder he gave left no one in any doubt as to why.

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Howard felt like crying, he felt it so powerfully that he couldn't even form tears, but knew his voice was shaking when he talked.

"Its alright Vince, I swear its alright. Look, see?" Howard swished his hand hopefully through the warm water in the bath, stopping instantly when Vince flinched and gagged slightly.

Vince stood about a meter away from the bath, white as a sheet, looking at it in an expression akin to fear and betrayal, eyes transfixed on the harmless see-through solution.

"We can put some bubbles in it, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Howard tried desperately. Vince finally met his eyes, shame evident in those suddenly dull eyes.

"I'm sorry Howard, I can't-" Vince's next word was deformed as he chocked out a sob; hand over his mouth as he dropped to his knees, trembling.

"Vince, Vince its ok, don't cry, please." Howard pleaded, dashing over to his friend. He dropped down next to Vince and tried to hold him, only to be suddenly pushed away as Vince stood up violently.

"No Howard! It's not fucking okay!" Vince yelled at him, really yelled. Howard gaped up at him as he clenched his fists, looking strangely dwarfed by the dressing gown.

"Vince?" He questioned cautiously, standing up slowly to try to not evoke a reaction. He eyed Vince carefully until the other man caught his gaze.

"Stop it!" He yelled again, making Howard jump.

"Stop what? Vince you're not-" After Vince's reply he was glad he had been interrupted, and not said 'making sense'.

"Stop looking at me like I'm crazy! I'm not! I don't want to not like the water! It's not like I fucking asked for this!" Vince's screams cut through Howard, preventing him from being able to reply from shock rather then hurt.

"You're still doing it! Ah!" Vince shouted in frustration and stormed out of the room, nearly knocking over Bollo and Naboo, who had been cautiously approaching the commotion.

It was a couple of second before Howard remembered to follow him out, seeing the other two also standing and gaping like fish as Vince stood clutching his head in frustration, coming dangerously close to ripping out his hair.

"Vince what's going on?" Howard asked more forcefully, not knowing why Vince had blown up.

"What do you thinks going on?! I, he-" Vince flustered desperately, trying to find the right words or phrase, his voice rising in pitch. "Fucking _blood _Howard! _Blood_! Everywhere! I can still feel it, all slippery and slimy and thick and cold." Vince muttered darkly, tremors wracking his body as he pulled his hair viciously.

Vince's eyes looked like a wild caged animal in that instant as he breathed desperately.

"Why? Why? Why Blood? Was I that wrong, too wrong? So wrong, sick and wrong!" Vince ranted and yelled bending double in mental torment, eyes closed tight as if to keep out the images.

The others didn't know what to do; they'd never seen Vince actually loose his mind before, not like this. The world seemed to die a little more, the light darken, as Vince fought his mind. It suddenly occurred to Howard what Vince was saying.

"Vince, this isn't your fault, there's nothing wrong about you."

"It is my fault." Vince moaned, still bent over, Howard breathed out impatiently in disbelief. Vince had to begin to understand this concept.

"How, how can any of this possibly be your fault? You said yourself that you didn't ask for this!" Vince shook his head violently at Howard words. Naboo was looking appalled at Howard's harsh tone, but he didn't care, sometimes people needed to be smacked back to their senses. He didn't blame Vince for this at all, of course not, but he was sick of this place and sick of that bastard that dare say he was Vince's father, and sick of what had been done to Vince. And Vince could only recover when he stopped blaming himself.

"You didn't want to be taken from the forest, you didn't do anything wrong when you tried to escape! He abandoned you, abused you, made you too afraid to eat, got you sick and hurt! He ignored you unless you dressed right, he would hit you over it! When you got pneumonia he didn't only not take you to the hospital, he told you it was the flu! And you could've died from it!" He paused for a breath, seeing Vince's wide staring eyes.

"He tried to kill you Vince, down in a hole, drowned, killed other people too! So how on earth, can any of this even possibly be your-"

"_I'm STUPID_!" The room stopped dead at Vince's tortured scream. Howard, Naboo and Bollo stared at Vince in shock and sadness that mirrored the broken tears from Vince.

"I never learnt any better, even when I was away from here, I didn't even think that something might be bad about the way he treated me. I was too stupid to see that he didn't want me, didn't love me!" Vince screamed through his tears, unable to hold back the pent up emotions. "I'm too stupid, and I never even thought that there might be some reason why he gave me away, why he brought me back." Vince chocked, voice harsh from screaming as he continued, turning from anger to just sounding broken.

"He told me, and I never thought about it, never remembered it. The day I woke up here, he said I was too fragile, too stupid to survive in the forest, that I shouldn't have survived in the forest. He said tha- that it was wr- wrong, that I'd gone wrong, and that's why he left me there." Vince's voice was near a whisper as the three onlookers stared onwards as Vince's eyes widened with recollections of the past.

"The only thing he ever said about her, was the only thing she'd ever said to me. She'd held me and, and I didn't react to anything." They watched in horror as Vince's world came crashing to a stop around him.

"'He's not right Jacques, I don't want him. He's too stupid." Howard felt sick at what he was hearing, about the woman that could only be Vince's mother. For some reason he'd pictured Vince's mother as a sweet woman who would've cared for her precious son if not for his father, or death during childbirth or something. Not a deranged person, not the person who had condemned him to this life of terrors, to a lifetime of being 'stupid'.

"How could I fight that, the mother always knows right? That's what animals do, the one that's too weird, too fragile, too stupid, they kill it. Nature's always right isn't it, that was why he brought me back, cos Brian prevented it, he needed to finish it, said it wasn't fair to keep me, it wouldn't be fair on me, cos I could never achieve, or be happy, or have a normal life." Vince broke into tears again before continuing.

"I always knew the reason he brought me back, but I was too stupid to remember why, so I thought it was to take care of me instead of to finish me off." Vince took a shuddering breath and looked up to meet the three shocked pairs of eyes.

"I was even too stupid to work that one out, so wasn't it partly my fault too? Because, I was too stupid to save myself, wasn't I?" Howard, Naboo and Bollo looked on as Vince dissolved into broken tears.

So that was it, this innate, ingrained belief that he didn't deserve to live, a belief that his own mother let loose as his death sentence. That was why he allowed it to happen, stayed in this house and with Bainbridge without resistance. Partly because he believed that it was for his safety and it was done out of love, and partly because of what he couldn't even remember, but was also told to him in a way every day, that he was too stupid to live, that he wasn't meant to. That was why they had all seen that Jacques still cared, maybe even a small part of him deep down did still love Vince, even though he also had been programmed into believing he was wrong. And why it had taken this long for him to take the final step into actually actively trying to kill his son, rather then hoping he would die quietly in a corner and out of sight. That one dinner party he wouldn't hear Vince's dimmed cries from his room.

It wasn't Vince's dad, but rather his mum that had sold this family into corrupted doom. A mother's dislike for her child was the reason Vince was messed up, broken, damaged and hurt. That was the reason this mansion was no more then a huge death trap.

Howard blinked from his thoughts, and shared a glance with Naboo that showed he'd come to the same conclusion. He turned to see the crumpled figure of Vince on the floor, his thin frame wracked with painful tremors as he cried his world out.

Howard walked slowly over to Vince and knelt next to where he lay curled on the floor, looking back at Naboo he got a soft smile of encouragement, one he appreciated to no end, even Bollo gave a small nod, although it was probably out of impatience.

"Sometimes Vince, we don't know to save ourselves, or we can't, if we've been put through too much, damaged too much, or even too set in our ways. But that's why we have friends, and people to be with, so that even when our world stops turning, someone can let theirs stop to help you start yours. Vince, you chose to talk to me when I went to your room that first time, you chose to hold onto that pole and get out of that hole, you chose to walk away from him during yoga, chose to yell at him in the forest." Howard took a breath to swallow back his sobs as Vince turned his head to him slightly.

"Vince, that very first day we met, you chose to go down those first few steps with me, to get out of Bainbridge's house. And when he found us in those mountains, and when Bainbridge tried to shoot me, you chose your life over the one they tried to end, and you were prepared to save mine, even though you'd been put through hell." Howard was aware he was crying.

"Vince, even though this is about as fucked up and crap as it can probably get, back then you chose to live, to get out from that place. And there's nothing stupid about that, that's taking control, and that's smart Vince, oh so smart, and about as brave as it gets. You mean the world to us three Vince, and we're all in this together, cos we care, and we'll stop our worlds for you, you just have to want your world to start again. And if you want that, then that's worth everything. You don't deserve to be treated like this Vince, you're not stupid like you think, even if you never will win awards." Seeing the desperate hope in Vince's eyes he continued.

"Nature never wanted you dead Vince, just a few messed up human beings."

Howard held his breath as best he could as Vince looked down before chocking out another sob and smiling softly.

"Oh Howard, what would I do without you guys?" Howard beamed and pulled Vince gently into a hug as Bollo and Naboo came over as well. "I don't wanna be here, do this, alone." Vince sobbed out sadly. "I'd miss you all too much now." Howard smiled at Vince's simple logic; there was nothing stupid about that.

"I know Vince, we aren't going anywhere, you've just gotta help us, alright?"

"I will, I promise." Naboo patted Vince's back gently, mindful of the bruises.

"Bollo not going anywhere, someone gotta save Vince from Howard." Everyone except Howard laughed, until Naboo squeaked.

"Vince your hands! The splints must have broke!" Naboo cried out, gently snatching the limbs and un-wrapping the bandages to reveal the nasty looking goop, and several broken splints.

Vince flinched as he wiped the goop off, but otherwise there seemed to be no harm to them, the cuts remained small and the bones were still mending.

"Bollo get a basin." The gorilla grunted, but was stopped by Vince.

"No, I, I wanna try the water again." He turned nervously to Howard. "Sooner then later right?" Howard and Naboo offered large smiles to the nervous shy one, and Howard helped a wobbly Vince up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had gone surprisingly well. Vince had allowed his hands to be washed and taken care of in the sink, and they were wrapped back up in the waterproof bandages.

He even managed the bath, surprising even himself, although he had insisted that they stayed with him, behind the curtain of course.

When first getting into the bath Vince had tightly grasped Howard's hand. However once submerged in the water he let out a squeak of surprise, and sounded shocked when announcing that it was actually nice. He had held onto Howard's hand for about a minute more before he decided that he was all right on his own.

After he had finished he even persuaded the others to leave the room whilst he got out and dried, and let the water empty.

As Vince sat at the edge of the bath, watching the slightly bubbly water swirl down the plughole, he felt strangely peaceful at the repetitive image it created. It was as if a slight weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and even though he still had an almost painful sense of foreboding, there was at least a little bit of light left, because he wasn't alone, and wouldn't be again.

::That was quite hard to write for me... as evidently I've never been nearly drowned in blood/trapped down a hole. So I'd love to know what you all think.

::Thank you for those magic reviews, you're all amazing and totally inspiring for me.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

A bit of Vince hurt for you all :). And lots of Naboo.

Echo: 8 Green Tinged Dust.

The remainder of the day had fortunately been uneventful. Howard realized that there were still five days left in the accursed mansion, even though it felt like weeks. He concluded this was due mostly to all the late night ventures they had had.

Looking around the room at the others he saw the telltale signs of fatigue on the three's faces, and doubted he looked much better himself. Even though they had got a suitable amount of sleep the night before, the erratic sleeping patterns over the last few days and at home were showing.

Even Vince had shadows under his eyes, hair looking slightly lifeless, Naboo's usually pristine hair was ruffled under the turban, and Bollo hunched slightly more then usual.

Howard himself could feel his joints aching slightly from the relentless action. He was therefore unsurprised that gradually the four of them all dropped off to sleep. Vince actually fell asleep on the soft fluffy carpet, Howard swiftly covered him with the bedspread, lest he get ill. Soon after Naboo tripped off to his room under the pretense of 'getting a book', but they soon heard snoring.

Bollo and Howard shared a few slightly comfortable seconds before Bollo suddenly crashed out on the sofa within a few seconds. Howard gloated silently on having the whole huge bed, and wrapped up in the blanket, although it felt strangely lonely. At the time however Howard couldn't put words to the feeling, and was soon asleep himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Four days. It was ten in the morning now; the night having been slept through fitfully by all, and no one felt any less tired.

Vince quietly begun creeping past the still sleeping Bollo and Howard, moving slowly towards the door.

"Vince? What you doing?" Vince spun around awkwardly at the voice of Naboo, and made desperate shushing noises at him, glancing at the muttering Howard.

As the room in general stayed asleep Naboo moved over to him, eyeing him curiously.

"What you doing, Vince?" He tried again in a rushed whisper.

"I left all my bags in my room, and I'm sick of wearing dressing gowns." Vince muttered.

"And how were you planning on carrying anything down with your hands like that?"

"I was just gonna change up there!" Vince defended pouting.

"And what about opening doors?"

"Opening doors?!" Vince replied, looking on incredulously.

"Yeah, its a very tricky procedure you know!" Naboo protested, as if Vince were being a tiny bit thick.

"Yeah then what about getting dressed?"

"I'll allow you that one."

"Gee thanks." Vince sulked. Naboo smiled at him, trying to soothe his wounded friend.

"I'm just saying let me come with you, I wanna help." Vince stared calculatingly at the shaman before deciding he wasn't being mocked, and nodded smiling, to which Naboo beamed.

Tension filled the air as they left and traveled down the corridor to Vince's room. Naboo watched as he almost imperceptibly skirted away from the door in the side of the corridor.

Naboo blinked and looked around the room in surprise as they entered, seeing it in visions and real life were two entirely different things. The mirrors reflected the room intrusively and the neon lights burned every object so there were no especially darkened corners, but the whole room seemed badly lit.

Naboo began opening all the mirrored wardrobes so Vince could get out any desired clothes without damaging his hands.

Vince flitted around the room with an ease born of habit, and Naboo was impressed as he navigated the fatal rugs and cushions. The room was both very 'Vince' and also not at all at the same time.

"What's with the penguin?" Naboo questioned, moving to prod the giant stuffed toy.

"It was a present from someone, I don't know who, it just seemed to appear." Vince replied distractedly as he rummaged through the wardrobes.

"Do you like it?" The shaman asked, wondering if it had taken the place of a security blanket of any sort.

"Well, it's a penguin." Naboo blinked in the direction of Vince, who had rooted out some black skinny jeans. Seeing the question in the shaman as he turned around Vince continued.

"How can you not like a penguin, look at how they dress, don't even need glitter, they're genius." Vince shot a dizzy grin at both Naboo and the penguin.

"His name's Pingu." Vince added as a formality.

"Did you even ever see that show?" Naboo asked, sure that Vince wouldn't have been allowed the privilege of a TV.

"Yeah, Brian had one." Naboo nodded at the answer and the conversation passed, Howard no doubt would have still been gawping over Vince's 'penguin fashion' comment. The thought made Naboo snort slightly before composing himself back into an enigma.

After a few minutes Vince disappeared into the green lit bathroom and kicked the door closed under Naboo's warning to not touch the handle.

Vince gazed around the green tiled room under the green lights, where normal people may feel ill by this effect, Vince found it strangely calming. It had always reminded him of the forest.

Vince proceeded to change from the dressing gown into the trousers and shiny silver top he had purposely selected.

He had just finished the outfit off with a brightly colored belt and boots when there was a sinister rumble from above him.

"Naboo? That was you right?" Vince's voice sounded scared even to him, but he ignored that in favor of listening for the answer.

"No, I think it's coming from above us." Naboo looked up at the ceiling as if to command X-ray vision to see the source of the disturbance. Another rumble sounded louder above them, and flakes of dust fell from what Naboo now realized was a mirrored ceiling.

"Vince, I think we should get out of here." The shaman crept backwards and opened the bathroom door slowly, as if any disturbance would bring disaster. Vince cautiously poked his head out the bathroom to look at the still rumbling ceiling along with Naboo.

With a fatal suddenness the tinkling of shaking objects and rumbling stopped, a few more sheets of dust fell from in-between the mirrored plating of the ceiling before deathly silence descended.

For several long seconds the two stood breathing heavily in the quiet, before it all erupted.

"Ah!" Vince screamed as the tiled bathroom collapsed around him, the green lights shattering as the ceiling came down, the tiles thundering and smashing down.

"Vince!" Naboo called desperately as his friend disappeared under the rubble. Dust tinged green swirled through the air making him cough as the room stilled and settled. The shaman imagined it was a near miracle that the bedroom hadn't gone down as well.

Naboo peered through the gathering dust and gloom, the only remaining light flickering and casting eerie green glows that hazed through the fractured air. A fragile sounding cough alerted him to the likely section of rubble that disguised Vince.

Stepping carefully onto the cracking floor Naboo knelt to begin shifting the tiles and ceiling as quietly as possible.

"Naboo?" Came a sluggish voice from a large pile of debris next to him.

"Shh Vince, I'm getting you out okay, just don't talk." Naboo whispered and carefully removed a large portion of ceiling; he glanced carefully at the hole where said ceiling used to be, unable to shake the creeping fear of being watched.

Looking back down to the floor Naboo caught sight of some black locks of hair being highlighted by the dying light. He swiftly shoved a pile of tiles aside; flinching at the clinking clatter they produced that cut through the silence.

Vince was choking back some coughs with difficulty, one hand and arm scrunched by his turned away head, his shoulder visible now from the rubble. Naboo jumped as he heard a scuttling sound from above them, he caught sight of one of Vince's wide and fearful blue eyes, occasionally being turned turquoise by the light.

Hearing the noise again he turned to the ceiling as Vince tried to be as still as possible, barely breathing and trembling from tension. Naboo reached out and placed a hand on his head, gently stroking the soft hair as he stared into the green dark.

As the sound didn't come back the shaman tentatively went back to shifting the rubble.

"Keep still Vince okay, keep an eye on the ceiling." He whispered, and Vince gave a subtle nod that Naboo wouldn't have thought he was capable of.

The movement of concrete and ceramic tiles went on for a few minutes, Naboo having to stop for breath and Vince flinching slightly every now and then.

Naboo sat back for a few seconds to catch his breath, which was hard in the dusty air; Vince was evidently thinking the same as he tried to stop coughing again. Naboo once more stroked his hair absentmindedly as he tried to both keep watch of the ceiling and assess any damage to Vince.

Only his legs were still encased in rubble, but it was when moving debris off his legs that Vince had flinched the most. To his credit though he'd been silent through the whole process, but Naboo was still nervous of whatever or whoever had caused this.

Gently, whilst still having one hand on the panting Vince's hair, Naboo reached down and felt around his thin waist. He prodded Vince's side gently so as not to make him jump, at a small hitch in his breath Naboo frowned.

Carefully he pulled up the top slightly, causing more discomfort to Vince, and softly reached for his stomach. Vince let out a very faint cry as the shaman touched the sensitive area.

"Shh shh." Naboo coaxed gently, once again stroking the raven hair. He stopped suddenly and drew back as he felt wet on his fingers, pulling his hand back. Even the green lighting could not disguise the red of the blood.

Hearing Vince's breath hitch again he turned to see him looking at the fluid on the shaman's fingers. Vince looked up at Naboo in fear and discomfort, pain beginning to lace his features as he let out a soft moan, pressing his forehead to the floor.

Naboo ran a comforting hand through Vince's hair once before turning to begin the final removal of rubble.

Vince managed to keep his breathing normal and quite as Naboo finished, and soon the rubble was completely removed. The two were now in a channel surrounded by rubble that led to the door.

Naboo faintly heard the scuttle from above them again, but chose to ignore it for getting out of here. He carefully helped Vince sit up, revealing a gash in his stomach caused by fractured floor tiles.

Vince pressed a hand to the wound tightly as they stood up. Naboo watched him worriedly as he staggered slightly, and for the first time wished he was slightly taller as he held Vince's free wrist and helped pull him out into the main room.

No sooner had they emerged then there was a sinister scratching and tinkling as the bedroom shook. As the room shook a degree harder Vince jerked slightly towards the corner of the room, Naboo saw him staring in wide-eyed panic towards the penguin in the corner as one of the mirrored surfaces fell with a crash from a wardrobe.

"Vince come on!" Naboo yelled as the room begun to crash around them, pulling Vince from the room even as he screamed in protest.

Just as he had managed to haul them into the corridor into a heap the room exploded in glass. Mirrored shards crashing down from the ceiling with horrifying clanging sounds followed by sinister tinkling. Shining dust glimmered in the room, preventing them from seeing inside.

Naboo looked at Vince's pale face, the wide blue eyes bright with shock as tears tripped and glided over his face. Not wanting him to have to look at what had befallen the room, or the now massacred penguin Naboo hastily got up and swung the door closed.

He turned back to see Vince still staring blankly at the closed door, face as white as death.

"Vince, there was nothing we could do, we would have died." Naboo almost pleaded. His eyes widened as a sickly smile tugged at Vince's mouth, a harsh laugh escaping from it.

Naboo blanched slightly as Vince tilted his head back, a high-pitched, hysterical laugh cutting through the silence. The laughter was short though before Vince choked slightly, face turning to despair and eyes shutting tightly.

"Vince." Naboo muttered as he cried softly. He moved forwards and pulled Vince into a hug, who clung to him like a lifeline.

"He was only a penguin. What did he do?" Vince sobbed, pulling Naboo closer in confusion and grief. Naboo just stroked his hair faintly, unable to justify the death of the penguin, however inanimate it was.

Vince eventually let out a sharp hiss of pain and clutched at his stomach. Naboo pulled away from the embrace to see blood staining Vince's top and trousers, his face steadily draining of color as he flopped slightly onto Naboo.

"Just back to the room alright, come on." Naboo said in his normal monotone voice, the normalcy of it more then anything else seeming to pull Vince into action.

Vince staggered and tripped to his feet, clutching his stomach in pain as he shook. Naboo set off down the corridor, gently tugging Vince along behind him. To many Naboo would have seemed uncaring, but getting Vince into action and back to the room was his priority, he couldn't carry him after all.

Naboo went down the stairs slowly and Vince followed in a vaguely sheep-like manner. Once he had opened the door however Vince tripped over tumbling down the stairs to lie curled in the corridor, narrowly avoiding Naboo. He laid trembling and panting, body twitching in pain regularly. Naboo sprang towards him as he saw Vince's blood beginning to darken the red carpet.

"Vince come on, you gotta get up." Naboo insisted, kneeling by his stricken friend's head. Vince opened his eyes and looked trustingly up at Naboo in a way that cut through him like only Vince could.

"Nearly there alright." Naboo coaxed softly, gently helping to drag Vince back to his feet. Naboo bit his lip as Vince's legs shook so bad he could barely stand.

Nether the less Vince tripped and stumbled with Naboo down the hallway, leaning on him heavily.

The two managed to reach the room without further injury, although Naboo could tell that Vince wouldn't be able to make it even to the sofa, he was panting so heavily and shaking so bad that Naboo prayed he wouldn't go into shock.

"Bollo, Howard!" Naboo yelled as soon as they burst in through the door. Both the, in Naboo's mind, useless lumps jerked from sleep at their names, and made similar scrambling motions to get upright.

"Vince!" Howard cried, and ran over beating Bollo to catch the falling Vince. Howard managed to grab him before he hit the floor and held him tightly as he stared at Naboo in confusion. Bollo also gaped idiotically at the shaman.

"Vince first questions later." Naboo ordered, Howard focused swiftly on getting Vince to the couch as he started gasping weakly for air, face turning shades of pale Howard had never seen before.

Bollo ran to get Naboo's medicine kit as Howard removed Vince's top, wincing at the gash there.

Naboo swiftly set to work on cleaning the wound. The cut was deep though, and he instructed Bollo and Howard to hold down the nearly comatose Vince as he stitched it up.

The process was wholly unpleasant as Vince screamed in pain without any anesthetic, as he had 'maxed out' as Naboo had to repeat to the nearly crying Howard.

When Vince was all sewn up and bandaged he lay breathing feebly and emitting little cries, eyes fluttering half open and dizzy with pain, too weak to move. Naboo sat next to his head now after having washed his hands, stroking Vince's hair sadly to comfort them both.

Howard held Vince's hand softly so as not to damage them and stared pointfully at Naboo, seeing the strain on his face.

"What the hell happened?" He asked desperately, Bollo looked up and nodded in agreement from the question from where he had an arm over Vince's chest to keep him warmer, none of them could bear to tear themselves away to get a blanket. Not after being involved in such pain.

Naboo sighed softly as Vince's eyes swam out of focus and fluttered closed as he finally fell to a pained sleep; he ruffled his hand gently through the feathered hair again before recounting the story, penguin and all.

Not much was said after he had finished, they were all in slight shock and fear over what, or who, had caused the room to collapse. Howard eventually got up and retrieved a blanket, gently tucking it around Vince before holding his shoulder protectively.

"Well so far nothings attacked or happened in this room, probably because Vince doesn't have any memories here, which is what this, thing, seems to play on." Howard glanced at Naboo and Bollo to see them nod at his words. "So I think that we're safe here, as safe as we can be anyway."

Some of the tension left after that conclusion.

"It got to be the father, it always the father." Bollo announced convinced.

"No, it's always the butler, not the father." Howard corrected at the insult to classic literature.

"But here the father killed butler, that means the father did it." Bollo retorted insulted.

"But Jacques isn't a shadow, and he doesn't scuttle like that sound either." Naboo interrupted. It was true, as much as they all believed it was Jacques who was the cause of this; he wasn't the person executing it. They sighed in frustration.

"At least for now Vince is safe." Howard stated.

"Yeah but for how long, we're still here for four, well three and a half days." Naboo replied tiredly.

"Well we'll just have to try and keep us all safe till then, there isn't anything else we can do, and I for one am not letting that bastard get Vince." Howard growled out in anger. Bollo and Naboo were slightly taken aback by the sudden display, but nodded in agreement.

No one was going to get their Vince, not without a fight. And the last three and a half days of their 'holiday' would lead to just that.

::Wow go me! Thank you all so so much for your wonderful reviews and please tell me what you thought. Next chapter shall hold contact with the enemy, hope you enjoy and enjoyed!

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	9. Chapter 9

:Wow, I have succeeded in breaking the block of writers, sorry about that, it couldn't be helped, but here you go now.

: Hope you enjoy, I've put my heart and soul into this story so it mans a lot to me if anyone still reads this, thanks for all of your wonderful reviews too.

Echo: 9 Sleepy Pasts.

Howard grumbled from his sleep as his back begun to protest against the awkward position it was in. It was only after this that he also noticed a slight prodding on his shoulder.

Opening his eyes to the world he squinted through the semi darkness as he stretched his back out.

"Howard! I've been poking you for ages!" Howard's head shot around to the sound of Vince's weak and antsy voice. The wide blue eyes stared at him anxiously through the darkness.

"Vince?" Howard asked, rubbing his eyes to attempt to focus on the prone figure. "What's going on?" In his sleepy state Howard didn't notice Vince's increased agitation.

"Howard will you wake up!" Vince insisted, voice in a rushed desperate whisper.

"Get Naboo, or Bollo, I need my beauty sleep." Howard muttered as he tried to lean against the couch again whilst Vince's knee tried to force him off.

"I can't they wont wake up!" Vince insisted in an increasingly desperate fashion.

In the back of his mind Howard was aware that he should be paying attention to Vince, but he was just too tired to move, let alone listen.

"Vince just go to sleep." Was his last mumbled phrase before he slumped on the sofa, fully intent on sleeping the night, and next few days, away.

"Howard! Agh!" Vince cursed under his breath as he glanced around the room, the darkness was getting thicker. He looked at Naboo and Bollo who were both out for the count and drooling in the deepest sleep they'd ever had. He couldn't let Howard fall into it too, somehow he just knew he'd never wake up.

Howard himself thought he was finally being left in peace until he was suddenly thrown off the sofa, he landed hard on the floor with a heavy thud above him.

"Vince! What-" Howard looked over to see Vince half sprawled on top of him eyes wide and staring at him desperately. Howard didn't have the time to look further at him however as Vince suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him into a sitting position.

Howard looked at Vince in annoyance as Vince pulled them both backwards slowly, but Vince wasn't looking at him anymore. No, Vince's eyes were transfixed on the top of the door near the ceiling, showing more fear then Howard had ever seen in a person.

Slowly he turned to the door himself, and saw the reason those blue eyes were so haunted.

At the top of the door, through the nearly non-existent crack, shadows like wisps of smoke were creeping through and floating sinisterly around the room.

"What the-" Howard said in a near whisper, now that he noticed it more he could feel Vince's heart beating rapidly through his back.

They watched in paralyzed fear as the shadows swirled around the room and then begun to collect over their heads to form something more tangible then smoke.

Howard could do nothing but stare at the slowly forming darkness, body feeling heavier then he'd ever known. Vince however seemed to manage to reconnect his brain.

"Come on Howard move!" he urged out, jumping up and dragging Howard best as he could with him as he pelted for the door. Howard saw even as he was pulled along, the creature turn its face to them as Vince managed to wrench open the door and turn to flee down the corridor.

As soon as they had left the room Howard's body seemed to gradually become less heavy, and he was more aware for Vince's vice-like grip on his arm that forced him to keep running. How Vince kept running was beyond Howard, but he wasn't about to stop to think.

They pounded down the corridor away from where Vince's room used to be and fled tripping down the stairs to another long hallway.

Before Howard could quite grasp their new location Vince hurled them around and into nothing less then a cupboard, slamming the doors shut behind them. Howard sat scrunched up and panting as Vince finally stopped and sunk down next to him, holding his stomach and gulping air. However, as his raven-haired companion stared in a fearful certainty at the door in the dark, Howard couldn't bring himself to comment on a safety hazard that he normally would have, for example never close the doors if you're in a cupboard.

Instead he joined Vince in staring at the doors in the darkness.

The jazz maverick was beginning to think that danger had passed, whatever it was, and turned to Vince to state as much, but as soon as he turned his head that strange heavy feeling washed over him again.

Thinking what a good idea it would be to catch up on some sleep whilst he was here, he shifted slightly to lean against the cupboard, yawning.

"Howard no!" Vince hissed desperately, trying to shake the sleep out of Howard who remained stubbornly lump-like. The fear in Vince's voice could almost be felt, and the slightly chocked sound of it nearly made Howard sit up, but the fuzziness in his head increased until his eyes were only half open.

"G'night Vince." He mumbled, much to Vince's hushed protests.

"Howard don't leave me!" Vince sobbed, the sound nearly breaking Howard's heart, and he begun to worry over why he couldn't move or stay awake, but there was nothing he could do, he was too tired.

Vince switched his petrified gaze from Howard to the darkening doorway rapidly. His stomach burned horribly from any movement, his head ached dully making thinking more complicated then usual and his hands seared with pain from suddenly being used and gripping Howard's arm so tightly. To that effect all of him ached from the effort and he shook from adrenalin, tiredness and fear.

But all of that paled in the thought that something bad was coming for them and Howard had fallen into a sleep Vince couldn't hope to wake him from, and there was no way he could drag him anymore.

A painful whirlwind of increasingly morbid thoughts stabbed at Vince's head as his panic grew, the certainty of pain or capture or, anything swirled around and the walls started closing in.

Soon Vince was back down in that wretched hole, blood pooled around him and clinging to him wet and sticky and metallic. He couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe.

Raven hair was clenched tightly with painful hands as Vince scrunched in on himself, images flickering in front of his open eyes.

He was caught in the headlights of his memories, and even as the doors wafted open sinisterly all he could do was flinch from the darkness on the other side of them and cower into Howard's sleeping body.

The slight comfort of Howard's familiar smell and warmth made Vince cling to him for his life. 'Howard's here, it's alright, Howard's here, I'm not alone' came the broken mantra from his head even as he felt smoke soft hands grab him.

"Take them both, we don't want that one alerting that shaman." Vince could barely interpret the words, but the sinking cold inside him told him that he'd somehow failed Howard now, he couldn't protect him.

The movement through the mansion passed by in a whirl of flickering darkness and blurred memories of pain. It was as if his mind was being blinkered against intelligent thought.

Only vaguely was Vince's traumored mind aware of being placed on a cool floor, a strange heaviness overcoming his wrists and ankles.

Occasional glimpses through the darkness revealed a high far away arched ceiling, a dark figure in the background and a finely tiled floor.

Eventually the darkness passed, and he stared dimly at the ceiling, too exhausted and shell-shocked to move. The whirlwind of memories he couldn't focus on decreased to a dull ache in the back of his head.

Vince felt heavy and defeated, staring blankly at a roof too far away to distinguish from the low light levels. His body would have melted into the floor if it could, but if anything the thought enhanced the feeling of his bones against the solid ground. Hs stomach burned on and off for Vince didn't know how long, he could have been staring at the ceiling for hours.

His fear of the lobster pot had vanished and any tension present in his limbs had long since faded away. Gradually he felt the darkness accumulate at the back of his mind until when he blinked he no longer wanted to open his eyes.

The strange pre-sleep thoughts crept into his mind, that the meerkats would only eat bananas nowadays and he was meant to ask them why, Naboo was having a half price sale at the kiosk later that month which would be fun as he was making lemonade for it, images of green penguins and red mirrors and deep black darkness.

Vince drifted to sleep never once having heard Howard's cries for him to speak.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Howard stared helplessly at Vince as his eyes finally closed and his breathing evened out. Although at any other time he was thrilled that Vince was sleeping peacefully, not like this, not at the moment.

Howard himself had his wrists cuffed directly to the wall and had no hope of movement, the redness of his wrists from trying was proof enough. He had woken up cuffed to the wall seeing the large shadow creature drag Vince to some chains embedded in the floor.

This had been the moment he had started to struggle only to find himself very movement inhibited. Jacques stood like a statue staring down at Vince with no emotion as the sleep-inducing shadow cuffed Vince's wrists and ankles.

Howard begun to get seriously worried when Vince reacted to none of this, staring blankly through the shadows at the ceiling.

Even when the shadow moved away Vince did not react, staring blankly ahead. Through what had seemed hours to Vince, but was in actual fact a couple of minutes, Howard had yelled at the prone figure to move, speak, scream or anything, all the while under the scathing looks of Jacques who switched staring alternatively from one prisoner to the other, delighting in Vince's lack of reaction.

"What did you do to him?" Howard yelled demandingly at the smiling man, who slowly turned his attention from the sleeping Vince to the furious Howard.

"Nothing, or I wouldn't have to if you had just stopped interfering. That little shaman friend of yours really messed everything up for us." Jacques muttered darkly.

"You mean messed up killing your own son, you're sick!" Howard retorted.

"Sick is a matter of opinion, besides, darling Marian was always right Vince himself proved that, and I was just carrying out her dying wish. Something her own son never appreciated." He sniffed haughtily, Howard stared at the deranged man in disgust.

"Yes, because her last wish was practically to kill him dead and make you a murderer in the process!" The jazz maverick fumed in outrage.

"She nearly managed it too." Jacques murmured staring down at Vince with an unreadable expression on his face.

"What." Howard was suddenly frighteningly glad Vince wasn't awake to hear this conversation.

"Well, you see she started it!" Jacques begun, suddenly flustered as he pulled at his hair in a disturbingly Vince-like way. "I thought that you know, it might have just been momentary, but somehow she knew that he was wrong even before she said it." Howard gulped nervously as the mad man kept looking at Vince as if seeing ghosts.

"The nurse told me that she had just given Vince to Marian to hold for the first time because she hadn't wanted to when he was born. And I had never known why he seemed fine to me, maybe a bit lethargic." The man babbled insanely as Howard grew cold listening to the whole messed up story of the screwed up family.

"B-but when we got to the room," Jacques choked on his own words slightly, "Marian was, you see, I didn't know she would do it! She was always fond of children! We all thought she'd be the perfect mother! She was always so excited about Vince!" The man was practically tearing his hair out and looking nervously at Howard as if to assure him this was the truth.

Even though part of him didn't want to hear the fractured story, his vast experience with mad people, ahem Fossil, told him that this could be the only way to get Vince out of there alive.

"What happened Mr. Noir?" He questioned hesitantly.

"Well, when we got there, Marian, she was right to do it of course! She just needed to show to the rest of us that he was wrong!" Howard waited nervously as the man panted.

"She, she was suffocating him," He murmured, attention now fully on Vince. "Had that little blue pillow over him as he lay there on her lap. The nurse and some others removed Vince but they said, said that he might already have suffered from oxygen shortage, that he may never recover, that this could change his life. If she'd just told me before then-! Then he could have just gone somewhere else, but no one wants a brain damaged baby." He took a breath to steady himself somewhat and stepped towards Vince hesitantly.

"They tried again, after Vince had recovered, giving her the baby whilst they were still in the room, and I tried I really did! 'Look at our little Vince, isn't he pretty, aren't his eyes just the perfect blue?' I couldn't accept it, but she knew better then me, mothers always know best, 'he's not right Jacques I don't want him, he's too stupid.'" He took a final breath and took a few steps away from the innocent Vince on the floor.

"The nurses said that the lack of reaction was more likely from the trauma and he would recover, not from innate stupidity. But the more I thought about it over the years the more I realized that Marian was right, he was always wrong, Marian wouldn't have acted like that unless it was true."

"Oh Vince." Howard muttered sadly in the pause that followed, staring at that beautiful and innocent person that had been unfairly thrown into this family's twisted world. The person that had given his life so much meaning. And maybe he was messed up slightly, and maybe he never would be up to Howard's intellectual standard, but there wasn't a wrong bone in his body. And Howard wouldn't change him for the world.

"Not to matter, this will all be finished tonight." Jacques stated, emotion deserting his face.

"What are you going to do? And how have you been managing to do all of this?" Howard demanded nervously, eager to both find out how and hoping to keep him talking until he thought of a decent escape plan.

"That's quite simple really." The loathed man clicked his fingers and the far wall opposite to Howard slid aside to reveal a black blue abyss that slowly begun to emit neon green smoke.

"No, that was the, that thing in Bainbridge's house!" Howard exclaimed, vividly remembering the abyss behind the heavy wood door that had swallowed up the giant rabbit that had tried to attack Vince, right back on the first night they met.

"Well there were always two of them, very useful things these portals, they'll comply with the owner's wishes you see, like some sort of mystic, freaky, psychic power or something." He finished, bemused but pleased.

"So that's how-" Howard trailed off, realizing he actually didn't understand at all.

"Yes, its an heirloom I hadn't used before Vince finally managed to escape around seven years ago, something to do with a leopard I don't know. But when I finally tracked him down around five, six years after, well he was a wreck to put it plainly. So I thought that he would cause me more trouble then anything and my good friend Bainbridge offered his services, he owed me anyway." Howard kept getting more confused and angry by the minute, did these two men seriously think they could mess with someone like this?

"Did Vince a favor really, took him over there unconscious, Bainbridge had one of these portal things too you see. He commanded it to erase Vince's memories, and to occasionally send random things through the portal to keep him docile and amused, or kill him, either way it would give him something else to focus on then the way he was being treated.

"Vince apparently woke up a few days later without any memories other then those in the forest, Bainbridge gave him something shiny to distract him from that fact and told him to stay up there, and that was it. Leave him to slowly starve or fall into the portal, and be done with him."

Howard stared in disgust at the man, how could anyone be that impassionate towards another human, treating him like some brainless rat in a cage.

"I think Bainbridge may have begun to become attached to him unfortunately, he once said how he occasionally left real food for him, well either way he would die eventually. That's why he begun to regain his memories slowly when he was taken away from there however, otherwise he would never have recognized this mansion and I could have done away with him much more easily.

"But no, you just _had_ to interfere." He continued ranting, shooting Howard a dirty look. "So I took it upon myself to finish the job once I went round to Bainbridge's and found a note he'd left that Vince had escaped and he would recapture him. He never came back though, so I found out about you and where you worked and low and behold Vince had become a registered zookeeper.

"I easily lured that retard Fossil here and activated my own portal, things that would reenact Vince's memories at first as I was sure he'd begin to remember. But then when that failed I stepped up, he would be dead by now if not for your diminutive friend, and then again when I sent the next one to collapse his bedroom." Jacques sighed dramatically as he reached the end of his tale.

"So finally I sent one to put them asleep and bring Vince here, I didn't mean for you to come too but it matters not now." Howard was still struggling to take all of this in as Jacques moved next to Vince.

"Don't worry, it will all be over soon, then you wont be in anymore pain." Jacques crooned softly at Vince, much as one would soothe a child, before he straightened up.

"Yes, it will all be over soon." He muttered, before viciously throwing a kick at Vince's ribs, startling him awake with a cry of pain as an audible crack was heard.

"Vince!" Howard screamed, once again completely focused on the here and now and his best friend's imminent death.

"I'll end it all for you Marian, and for you too Vince."

:Some much needed answers, I really hope you enjoyed and please please review, the next ought to be the last chapter, and then I don't know what I'll do... cry myself to sleep.

:Thanks for reading, shadowtheo


	10. Chapter 10

:I own nothing but my own imagination.

:Hope you have all enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it, and thanks for reviewing, it really means the world for me.

Echo: 10

"I'll end it all for you Marian, and for you too Vince."

Vince squinted up at his father in pain as he coughed against the pain. He had no idea what was going on, waking up to blinding pain although it felt like he had only just fallen asleep. He also had the most disconcerting loose feeling amongst the pain that did nothing to soothe his already fractured nerves.

"Vince! Vince speak to me are you ok?" Vince heard Howard's desperate tones cut through his confusion; he swiftly turned his head to see his friend cuffed to the wall and looking distraught.

"Howard!" Vince called out thankfully and tried to turn his body to get up, only to find he couldn't move his limbs past a certain amount. Looking down in panic he saw chains tying him to the floor.

"What's going-!"

"I've waited too many years to finish this charade Vince, I'm not going to wait any longer." Jacques interrupted sternly, causing Vince to jump and desperately squirm to try and get away from the proximity of his father.

"Leave him alone! He's your _son _for pity's sake!" Howard pleaded, nearly in tears.

Vince froze, looking up at the man that had tried to let him die all his life, and then looking over at the man that had done all he could ever do to save him, who would even now plead for him. Tears formed in Vince's own eyes.

"Howard." He muttered, remembering that first time he had seen Howard, seeing something he would later register as kindness in his eyes. Kindness he could not remember seeing before then. The vast difference in Howard to anything he had ever before encountered made him take those first painful and tentative steps down to freedom.

That genuine care and worry in Howard's eyes was the same if more intensified today as it was back then when the plan pony had broken his ankle. Howard met Vince's eyes, and the gratitude and fear and hope and pain that passed between them then, at what seemed like it was going to be the end of all things said more then any words they had ever uttered.

"Oh no, you're not going to get to die like that." Vince and Howard snapped their attention back to the man who had now moved to nearer the portal.

"You should remember, remember all the things that happened here, all the pain you caused me, all the annoyances. Your life really will flash before your eyes before you die."

"Not if I can help it." Came a determined monotone from the door. The three people spun around as much as they could to see Bollo give a great monkey yell and enter the room followed by a smaller figure.

"What! Who is it now!" Jacques screamed as Bollo ripped Howard's cuffs off the wall.

"I'm Naboo that's who." The puma answered proudly, Bollo pulling the chains that held Vince out of the floor.

"Is that so, well no ones messing everything up this time, not now!" As the man screamed the room shook hard enough to send the four friends to the floor and scatter them again. A huge rift appeared between the five people and the portal and it flashed violently.

"Watch out!" Vince screamed as a shadow exploded from the portal into Naboo, knocking him from the room back into the corridor.

"Naboo!" Bollo roared, running after him as more shadows pelted down the corridor after them.

"That's one thing taken care of then." Jacques screamed triumphantly as more shadows and random bursts of light filled the room.

"Howard!" Vince cried as a shadow grabbed Howard by the arms and threw him to the floor.

"Vince!" Howard yelled back desperately as shadows begun to circle and swoop around Vince rapidly, causing wind to whip around the small figure.

"Vince hang on!" Howard yelled, trying to run past the looming shadow only to hit some sort of force field and fall back.

"Oh he wont be able to soon!" Jacques shouted above the wind. "You're going to remember everything Vince! If it's the last thing I do!"

The roaring of the wind reached a tremendous height and Howard and Vince struggled to keep standing.

"Don't you remember it Vince? That first time I tried to carry out her wish; I pushed you down the stairs didn't I?! You bounced just like a rag doll and still didn't die, you just broke your arm and hit your head!" He screamed into the wind.

Vince gasped as he saw the moment clear as day, the stairs and then a weightless feeling before the stairs rushing towards him, blinding pain coursing through him. Only when the memory ended, the pain stayed.

Howard watched Vince scream as two shadows whipped past him; mealy knocking him over as a terrible cracking sound filled the room.

"No!" He screamed, once again running forwards and being knocked back. "_Vince_!"

Vince gasped in pain and clutched his bleeding arm as it hung awkwardly, the bone broken through the skin. He raised his head that felt like it was exploding with pain and stared in disbelief and hatred at his father. Jacques smiled sickeningly.

"And then the next time, when you hadn't eaten when guests were over, one of them had even asked me about you! So I sent you to your room only you put up such a fight that you fell and broke the mirror!"

Vince once again felt the memory replay of his father practically throwing him into the mirror. Once again almost as soon as he had pictured it, searing pain sliced through his unbroken arm and side as he screamed, swaying dangerously as blood begun to darken his top.

"The time I beat you to try again and you coughed up blood!" Accompanied with Jacques's outrage and the helpless memories, forces knocked into Vince just like back then, making him fall to the floor, coughing for air but instead choking on the blood from his damaged lungs.

"Vince please." Howard pleaded the stricken figure, lying coughing on the floor.

The raven-haired man however raised his head in defiance to his father, causing a twitch of anger to deform his face. Slowly and painfully, Vince heaved himself up against the wind and injuries, standing panting in anger of his own.

Howard had never seen Vince so determined, fighting back the only way he could. It wouldn't deter Jacques though, who begun circling Vince himself.

"What about that time you dislocated your shoulder." Jacques stated, letting Vince play out the memory himself. Howard held his breath as Vince yelped in pain and fell to the floor again, groaning in agony of his now completely useless right arm. But he watched as once again to the hatred of his father, Vince staggered to his feet, glaring daggers at the vexed man.

"Go Vince." Howard muttered, partly in pride and partly in fear.

Jacques growled, face pale with dangerous anger as he resumed circling.

"And the time you cut your wrist." He stated, Vince once more crying in pain and hunching over, wrist bleeding, before looking back at him. "The time you sprained your ankle," Vince collapsed to his knees before tripping back to his feet, shaking. "The time you got concussed, the time you trapped your foot, the time you broke your leg!" Jacques screamed, each time Vince fell down before getting back up until his leg wouldn't support him, leaving him kneeling, but still glaring in defiance.

"Why wont you just _die_!" Jacques screamed at the bloody figure. "If you wont die then your friend will!" Howard suddenly felt his throat tighten as if in a vice, he fell to his knees gasping for air that wouldn't reach his lungs. Howard stared as Jacques laughed manically, and Vince met his eyes, fear written all over those expressive blue orbs.

"_NO_!" Vince suddenly screamed, Jacques looked round in slight panic as Vince launched himself, broken bones and all into the psychopath. They collided with a heavy thud, falling to the floor and rolling with the momentum.

As soon as they hit the tightness lifted from Howard's throat and he gasped desperately at the sweet air, the shadows fled around the room as the ground shook violently.

Howard stared for a few seconds at the father and son desperately tearing and clawing at each other as they rolled towards the giant crack in the floor. Then sense returned to him as he saw the trail of Vince's blood that led to them.

"_Vince_!" Howard screamed as he got up and ran towards them, being thrown by the room's tremors as the portal flashed violently.

The two eventually came to stop just before the crack as Vince managed to somehow temporarily overpower his father.

"You should have _died_! You aren't _capable _of living!" Jacques screamed up at his son as he twisted, nearly overturning Vince.

"If I'm so stupid then wouldn't I have died already? You could have just given me away! Left me with Brian! You ruined my life! You made me feel stupid! But I'm better then you'll ever be, and if she'd given me a chance then she would've been proud of me! I'm more beautiful then you'll ever be able to see!" Vince yelled, tears mixing with the blood on his face as he tore at and fought the man who he'd feared and loved desperately all these years.

Jacques wouldn't be bettered however, and with a final twist managed to throw Vince over right to the edge of the rift. But when Vince landed violently on his back on the very edge, he kept going and fell down, being scratched by the rocks as he desperately grabbed onto his last hope.

"VINCE!" Howard cried as he saw Vince disappeared over the edge of the cliff as a hand grabbed his ankle.

However, as Vince screamed from the pain on his broken leg and sprained ankle, he managed to grasp onto the wall above him, the sharp weight the stop caused nearly breaking the hold.

Vince's head jerked down to the slipping feeling on his injured leg, and the terrified pleas and utterings of 'no'. Jacques and Vince's blue eyes met for a second in identical looking fear, but opposite thoughts behind it. Jacques' eyes slowly widened as his hand slipped down Vince's ankle because of the blood he had caused to spill.

A final look of utter horror crossed his face before his grasping hand hit thin air, and he fell down into the darkness of his own home, an image of his wife holding their newborn baby with a smile welcoming him into the darkness, his last words of 'I tried my best' to be heard by no one, but the smile on his face as he lay crumpled and instantly dead in his own hall would be seen by all.

"Vince!" Howard screamed as he skidded to the crack, grasping Vince's hand just as it slipped off the ledge. "Hang on." He begged as he got a better grip, at least the room had stopped shaking now, the portal just looking black if Howard had cared to look.

"Howard," Vince breathed in a range of painful emotions, tilting his head up to gaze at the scruffy haired man. Howard stared into the tear filled eyes on the bloody face; Vince's voice was soft and pleading. "Please don't let go." Howard felt a couple of his own tears slip down his face at that.

"Wouldn't dream of it little man." He croaked, before pulling with all his might, dragging Vince over the edge before gently but firmly grabbing him and scooping him up as they sat on the floor, holding him close.

"Its okay Vince, I've got you." Howard sobbed into Vince's hair as the small figure shook violently. After a minute or two Howard managed to draw a semi-steady breath and drew back slightly to look at Vince, softly wiping the tears from under his eyes.

Vince looked a mess, his right arm hung at an awkward angle, his leg too and foot seemed crumpled, his face was bloody and his hair matted. In fact there seemed to be blood everywhere, including the corner of his mouth and his wrist, which Howard hastily wrapped up in a handkerchief he happened to have handy.

He gently wiped the blood from Vince's face as his eyes struggled to focus on him, both from concussion and blood loss.

"There, see, that's better right." Vince attempted a brave little smile, but his eyes fluttered, nearly closing as his weight became too much for him to hold up. Howard held him close as he begun shaking with tremors.

"Shh, its alright Vince, its going to be alright." Howard soothed Vince's fractured mind and broken body, gently stroking his raven hair as he coughed.

Howard was worried beyond reason, not only about Vince but Naboo and Bollo too, but he was afraid to move Vince, especially as he no longer seemed to be able to see straight.

Vince's eyes drifted between open and closed, threatening to roll back as they moved loosely. Howard smoothed the fringe away from his face as he muttered inconsequential things to him, coaxing life into the darkening eyes and paling skin.

For a few seconds Vince managed to struggle slightly back to consciousness, looking up at Howard as their eyes met again.

Blurry brown eyes met by glazed blue ones. This time Vince did manage a smile, just as dizzy, if not as big, as usual.

"I'm glad its you here Howard." Vince mumbled out softly, meaning every word of it.

"I'm glad it's me too." He replied gently, stroking Vince's hair comfortingly as his eyes fluttered again.

To be together at the end of everything, that was the most important thing in the world, whether they lost or won, made it or not, this long night was just for them. That's how they needed each other, and that meant the world.

Howard however, still had to watch in despair as Vince's breaths became steadily more sluggish, the pulse at his neck further apart every time as the handkerchief stained crimson.

"You can't stop fighting now Vince, you've always fought them, I wouldn't have felt alive again if you hadn't fought." Howard pleaded, stroking Vince's lax face as his eyes struggled to comprehend the words, or see anything in focus.

"We'll get out, we always do right?" Howard asked his silent audience, tears tripping down his face as Vince's eyes faltered again and closed more.

The two sat like that, caught up in each other until Howard could no longer keep Vince awake, his eyes closing and meager weight sagging completely onto the distraught Howard.

"No, Vince please no." He pleaded, aware he should be screaming, running, dragging Vince to a hospital, but for some reason something held him in place.

For Vince, this was still his home, however terrible it was. And that was his father that had just died, no matter how messed up he was.

Vince had no family, no home, no strength and no stability. Did he really want to keep fighting and leave? What if Vince really was content to just die here, to leave his tortured life behind?

Howard looked high up into the ceiling above him, and was amazed to see that the rift had also cracked open the roof of the mansion and that he was looking up to see a cool nights sky accompanied by the most beautiful full moon he had ever seen.

"Come on Vince, you must at least want to see the moon one last time, I know you would've wanted that." Howard spoke quietly, partly to Vince and partly to the whole beautiful world that Vince would have loved to see.

"Yeah, I did." Howard jumped and looked down in shock to see Vince's pale face showing half open blue eyes. The light of the far off moon brightened Vince's eyes and they practically shone in the darkness as he smiled dizzily at Howard.

"I ain't done just yet, we've got all those tuna fish coming on Monday remember." Howard laughed in amazement at this stunning creature in his arms and his still genuine excitement about the impending tuna fish even as he shook badly.

"Yeah, yeah I remember. Just, don't let go all right Vince." Howard asked, meaning so many things. Vince just smiled softly, his eyes drifting shut again.

"Howard, Vince!" Came a lisping voice from the other side of the room.

"Naboo!" Howard yelled thankfully as he and Bollo ran to them looking none the worse for wear. Howard would learn later that they trapped the shadows in the vacuum they had brought, but it was back at the room and that was why they took so long.

Swiftly the gang left the room, Howard accepting surrendering Vince for Bollo to carry. As they passed the entrance hall they skirted around the rest of the keepers and Fossil who were staring at a crumpled form on the floor.

Howard watched carefully as Vince's half open eyes slid over the dead form of his only living relative with unreadable emotion.

A carpet ride and several hospital days for Vince later the four were back at the zoo in their normal routine, Vince having been allowed shaman medicine a few days earlier, earning him a swift recovery.

The day after the tuna fish had arrived, much to everyone's excitement, Howard decided to tell Vince about what he couldn't remember about his past, although the years between Jacques and Bainbridge were still a mystery, but Vince would remember in time.

They sat on the old couch in their hut, Vince with tears in his eyes as he learnt how his life had been created into the nightmare it was. Howard watched him as he struggled to take it all in, shaking with the emotion.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

That night Vince felt his head running in circles so much he couldn't sit still or move for fear of something either happening or not. Would his life always be like this? Discovering more pain and never being able to do anything he really wanted to.

Vince wanted to travel and see other countries and animals outside the zoo, he wanted to do so much with his life that he wouldn't waste the amazing luck he'd been given in first surviving and then finding Howard and Naboo and Bollo.

The problem was he couldn't see himself doing it.

Feeling trapped in the small walls of the hut, Vince leapt up and ran out of the house, only bothering to put on a coat over his pajamas. He ran as far and long as he could to get away from his strangled thoughts and echoing memories. Ran as far as he could before he finally collapsed on a small grassy hill, staring into the night, only just then realizing he had put on Howard's brown jacket, and for once not caring.

He stayed there for hours until he saw the sky begin to lighten with the beginning of day. He felt empty and drained, having not managed to cry a single drop of a tear to help his fractured mind.

Just as he was thinking he should go back incase Howard was worried he heard a small scuffling sound. Turning around he saw a cat creeping up to him before it sat itself purposefully on his lap.

"What's your problem Hun, bet you don't have four tom's chasing you round town." The cat purred as she made herself welcome and started licking her paw.

"I just think, maybe, I can't do anything." Vince answered, stroking the pretty tortoishell.

"Well what makes you do things then." She purred out good naturedly, lying on her back to have her stomach scratched.

"Well um, Howard I guess, he made me go down the stairs." Vince answered thoughtfully.

"Then it sounds like you should go find him Hun, I've got to go catch a mouse." The cat purred finally before stretching and slinking off back into the bushes.

"Thanks kitty!" Vince called out after it as he got up and launched himself back down the hill, the sudden urge to reach Howard now all-consuming.

Vince ran even faster then the night before, sprinting back to the Zooniverse as if chased. He dashed past the slowly stirring animals and keepers as he ran to the hut.

Howard was awoken by a sudden weight falling on top of him. He looked up blearily to see a panting Vince and immediately sat up.

"Vince, what's going on, are you ok?" Howard questioned, hand on Vince's shaking shoulder before suddenly being attacked into a Vince-hug.

"I think I was lonely." Vince mumbled into his shoulder, and Howard smiled and gave a little laugh.

"Well, you've found me now, lets try and get some sleep alright?" Howard suggested, lying back on his bed and offering Vince the covers.

Vince snuggled into Howard, feeling more complete and happy then he had in a long time. Howard had saved him from his eternal loneliness and desire for affection, and he would never let that go again.

It was time he got to enjoy his life, and time the world realised he deserved it.

:Wow that was a long time to finish for a story spanning approximately a week. Thank you for all the beautiful reviews, they really do mean the world for me. I want to dedicate Echo and Dizzy to everything that has inspired me, and to one of my friends, who will never read this and ill therefore never know, ha.

:Once again you've been gorgeous, like a giant shiny toy penguin, and please let me know what you thought.

:Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


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